0. Opening (4)

"Are you... a doctor?"

The mother, with one eye red, asked Derek, slightly loosening up.

"I didn't learn it for a long time, but I did study for several years."

There was no way a doctor would come to such a remote place, so even if everyone was sick and had a disease, they would have just ignored them and focused on their work. He told them he was a doctor because he thought there would be no big problem in treating these people since he just happened to gather some herbs coming all the way here.

Moreover... This family is somewhat strange. He needed to get to know them a little bit more.

"Oh, he said he was in a monastery. I guess this is God's will. Shall we all gather in the living room after dinner?"

Grandma said, clapping her hands. Derek bowed his head, smiling as politely as he could since they behaved as if it was so lucky to have him.

It's true that he came through a monastery. He also stayed there for about a week. But he was a sorcerer, really far from God's blessings.

"Hey, Derek... Are you okay?"

Aini asked because it would be hard for Derek, but he nodded saying it was okay. Even before eating, only Aini took a short nap, and Derek was carrying his heavy backpack all by himself. It would be lying if he said he wasn't tired.

"Please let me repay the favor of letting us stay for the night."

It would not be such a great medical skill, but it wouldn't be so bad that the family, who had never even seen a local doctor, would call him a quack. And fortunately, no one showed severe trauma, so it would be enough to treat them with medicine.

"My father's left elbow. Maybe he gave a wrong push or made a mistake. He continued to use the joint even after the injury, so it seems that it did not heal properly."

After the meal, Derek brought out an entire pouch of pills to treat the people.

"Last year, while making a large wardrobe... I suffered from the injury for a while."

"You must have been in a severe pain. Looking by the injury, your arm would have almost turned. Where did you fall from?"

"Yes, I fell from a closet that was taller than a person."

The mother who was sitting next to him frowned and shuddered as if she remembered the horrifying scene. Well, the sight of a person's arm bent at a strange angle isn't exactly a comfortable scene to look at.

"Ouch. That must have been very painful. It's hard for you even to straighten your arms because you're seriously injured..."

There was a fire right on the stove in the living room, so Derek immediately started making an ointment by melting pork fat in a large ladle and mixing it with medicine.

"First of all, this ointment is to relieve the pain. It's a mixture of medicine extracted from mint, but don't count on it too much as it only relieves pain."

Derek hung the ladle on a rack above the stove. It seems to be used for drying leather or cloth, but it managed to mount the ladle. It was fortunate that it was in a suitable location, neither too close nor too far from the fire.

"Right now, it seems that not only the joints but also the muscles are a big problem. Since the left arm doesn't move properly, the direction in which the force is used becomes strange, and the muscles grow with strength in that direction... It seems like it's been a vicious cycle for quite some time. It really takes a lot of effort to keep things from getting worse."

After saying that, Derek pointed out the muscles in the patient's left elbow, compared them to those in the right arm, and explained to them which muscles were different. And he explained how to do a massage and how to relax the muscles by moving his arms and relaxing his muscles.

[Pitter-patter...]

After teaching him the rehabilitation exercise, it seemed that it started to rain outside.

"Thank you, doctor. It's definitely better with just a massage."

The title the lady called Derek, who had glared at Derek at first, changed to Doctor. Although he thought people could be cunning, he felt a little pity for these people who lived in such a remote place that they welcomed the doctor.

"You have to do it every day to be able to prevent it from getting worse."

Aini seemed to be bored of being next to Derek. She started dozing in the heat of the stove. Lanneque's mother seemed to like the scene. She brought a blanket from upstairs and put it over Aini's shoulders. After tossing and turning for a while, Aini nodded again and began to fall asleep.

"And madame, your first priority is to take the strength out of your eyes when you are working..."

Derek hesitated for a moment.

'Huh?'

He quickly turned on the diagnosis magic to confirm it, but there was no sign of overwork. Just a sign of a slight cold. The joints of the hands are twisted in a deformed way... It's a problem that would happen to anyone if they use work tools a lot. He didn't see any of the symptoms that should appear if she was overworked.

"Uh... If you wet a cloth with cold water and put it on your eyes, the blood will go away. After that, soak a cloth in warm water and warm it up."

"Can I use that ointment too?"

The woman closed one eye and asked, but Derek shook his head.

"If it gets into your eyes or if you use it on your eyelids, it will be very painful. I know because I had a similar experience."

Perhaps because he thought of that time, Derek shuddered once.

"First of all, this is an eye medicine. You can dissolve it in a glass of water before using it, and the pain will be greatly reduced. It's not something that is easy to go bad, so you just have to be careful not to get insects in it."

Derek then poured the medicine into a small spoon. He made a kind of eye drop, but since he had to carry it while traveling, he had to reduce the volume, so he put the concentrated medicine in a bottle. It's not that rare, but it was something that took some time as it had to be simmered slowly near a fire.

"Excuse me, sir... I am..."

Lanneque's sister hesitantly called Derek. Derek looked at the child with a vague smile. But she didn't talk, just hesitating as if she was embarrassed about something. After talking in her sleep for a second, Aini woke up and tilted her head. Maybe she thought of how she would talk to someone else.

"Wait... Can I talk to you alone?"

Derek said yes, then, with his mother's permission, followed her to a corner of the kitchen.

He has seen patients like this a few times. They usually show this attitude when they are having sexually related diseases... But they won't meet anyone else in this forest, right?

"Here... I'm bleeding."

"Stop, stop."

Derek grabbed and stopped the child who had put his hand on her waist to pull down her skirt, and called her mother from the living room. She started menstruating a bit late, so her mother would know this better than Derek.

"And... Shall we see Lanneque outside for a while?"

"Yes? Me?"

"You said you heard a strange noise. Let's go outside and check it out. I think where we can avoid the rain would be good."

"Uh... Then, the eaves of the workshop should be fine because they are pretty large."

"Then see you there later. I'll lay Ainisis in the room and come down."

It was getting late at night, so everyone went to their rooms to go to sleep. It was starting to rain and it was getting much darker inside the house.

"Doctor, please fix my child."

Lanneque's father, who received the prepared ointment with a ladle, said so.

"I will do my best."

Derek said, holding Aini in his arms and carefully climbing the stairs.

Aini must have been very tired. Derek bumped into her several times while moving, but she did not wake up. Laying Aini on the bed, Derek tossed the medicine pouch he had used in the living room near his backpack and raised his cane. Then he left the room after wiping away the tears flowing down Aini's eyes from yawning.

"See... ...you soon, Derek."

He heard her sleep talking.

It was raining outside, but not very windy, so raindrops fell almost vertically. Derek followed the child to a closed workshop.

"Can you heal me... hearing the sound?"

"No."

Derek spoke kindly to Lanneque. And hold the cane firmly with both hands...

"I'll show you nightmares."

And knocked it on the floor once.

[Jingle]

A bell rang from somewhere.

"Yes? What is happening..."

His vision was distorted, as if the whole world was being sucked into a single point.