"Holy shit!"
"She’s not dead!!"
Three seconds later, Lu Wei jumped up, his face a mask of astonishment.
He had just felt a faint heartbeat!
While a "corpse coming back to life" wasn’t exactly terrifying, it was still enough to give him a scare.
’Did I get it wrong? Maybe it was just her chest rebounding.’
’I’ll check again...’
A moment later, Lu Wei calmed himself and, still skeptical, knelt again.
He checked for breath under her nose and pulled back her eyelids to look at her pupils. Although her vital signs were almost nonexistent, a breath so faint it was barely there proved that the grievously wounded girl was, in fact, still alive.
’It’s incredible.’
Glancing at the gash on her lower abdomen, which was several inches long, Lu Wei was astonished by her Life Force.
At the same time, he hesitated, unsure of what to do next.
First, the Adventurer’s Manual did offer "recommended actions" for this type of situation.
[If you encounter an injured Adventurer, please offer them what help you can. The Goddess of Life will bless every kind soul.]
The problem was, Lu Wei didn’t think he particularly needed the Goddess of Life’s blessing.
Nor did he feel that helping this "Kitchen Maid," who was carrying all sorts of seasoning packets, was within his capabilities.
Especially not in a forest teeming with danger.
The scent of blood could attract lurking goblins and wolf packs at any moment. The likely outcome of a reckless rescue attempt was ending up a corpse himself.
Besides, the woman was too gravely injured.
’She’d be hard to save...’
"Sorry, I’ll come back tomorrow. If your body hasn’t been eaten by beasts by then, I can give you a proper burial."
"That’s all I can do."
Picking up his torch, Lu Wei shook his head helplessly and prepared to continue on his way.
But he hadn’t taken more than a few steps when, for some unknown reason, faces completely unrelated to the present situation flashed through his mind.
Old Yor, who was willing to sell him goods on credit.
Furen, the foolish sucker.
And the man who had told him where to find the Giant Spider’s corpse.
He had to admit, although there were unscrupulous merchants like Lady Bosa, most of the people Lu Wei had met since crossing over were fundamentally kind.
It was as if that was the world’s true color.
’Well... maybe that’s putting it too strongly.’
But at least, that was how Heitai Town seemed to Lu Wei.
Warm, simple, and sincere.
So...
"You’re lucky!"
His footsteps suddenly stopped. Lu Wei looked back at the girl curled up on the ground, muttered fiercely, and then reluctantly turned back.
The torch clutched in his hand was a fragile shield. Its crackling Flame fought stubbornly against the night’s fog and the forest’s shadows, barely illuminating a life on the verge of being swallowed by eternal darkness.
But as a self-proclaimed Crafty Merchant, whether to soothe his own conscience or to take advantage of her plight, Lu Wei couldn’t possibly let himself take a loss.
"One silver coin for the Hemostatic Ointment. You don’t think that’s too expensive, do you?"
"And bandages, 30 Copper Coins."
"Pain relief powder, 40 Copper Coins."
"Sleeping Powder... you probably won’t need this, but it’s a bundle deal with the other items. That’s another 40 Copper Coins."
"That comes to exactly two silver coins. Do you agree to the price?"
"If you don’t say anything, I’ll take that as a yes!"
...
...
「Heitai Town, Daffodil Lane.」
It was nearly midnight, and all the shops in the lane were closed. Only a small clinic still had an oil lamp hanging by its entrance.
The dim yellow light spilled onto an unconventional sign, starkly illuminating three macabre words: Sawing and Sewing.
With a name so crude, it was a given that the clinic’s service wouldn’t be particularly warm or thoughtful.
And that was indeed the case.
The head Doctor of the clinic, Elder, whose nickname was "The Butcher," had a catchphrase—
"This is a clinic! Not a fucking brothel!"
To be fair, though, despite his foul temper, Elder’s medical skills were solid.
Most of the time, he could provide an accurate treatment plan based on a patient’s injuries... so long as he didn’t encounter any green-skinned patients after he’d been drinking.
A few years ago, an unlucky Beastman had come in to have a wound stitched up while Elder was drunk. Elder mistook him for a large goblin and nearly chopped off his head.
The clinic was subsequently smashed to pieces, and Elder gained a helper—or rather, an apprentice.
Her job was specifically to remind him that there was no such thing as a six-foot-tall goblin.
"Aryan! Go check on that Dwarf! It’s time to change his dressing!"
"And turn up the lamp! I can’t even see the mouth of my bottle!"
Sunk deep in a filthy reclining chair, Elder took a huge swig of liquor, his voice hoarse and irritable.
But the girl bustling on the other side of the room wasn’t the least bit afraid. She continued to grind a powder that smelled of mint and sulfur in a stone mortar, retorting loudly,
"Mr. Tongxu’s dressing has already been changed!"
"And you can’t see the mouth of the bottle because you’re drunk! It has nothing to do with the lamp!"
"..."
Elder froze, his face flushing beet-red as he retorted indignantly,
"Nine out of ten Dwarves are fucking named Tongxu! How do you know which one I was talking about?"
"Because we only have one Dwarf in the clinic right now, Mr. Tongxu!"
"Bullshit! There’s another one! The one with the leg injury!"
"That’s Mr. Balin!"
"Right! He’s the one I meant!"
"Teacher, Mr. Balin is a Dwarf!"
"..."
The hand holding the bottle trembled. Elder was again caught in an awkward silence, racking his brain for a way to salvage his dignity.
Just then, the clinic door was suddenly thrown open with a loud BANG.
"Uncle Elder, quick, she needs help!"
Lu Wei burst into the room, panting. After shouting, he laid the girl, who was hovering between life and death, directly on the floor.
Carrying her all this way had nearly killed him.
Even though his Power and Physique were a bit higher than an ordinary person’s, and even though the girl wasn’t particularly heavy, it was still a seven or eight-mile journey. Getting her back within two hours had pushed him to his absolute limit.
"Her... her stomach is injured. I already bandaged the wound, but she’s lost too much blood..."
Leaning on his knees, Lu Wei gasped out the simple explanation, then grabbed a kettle from the table and started gulping down water. GLUG, GLUG, GLUG.
To save her, he had hidden his backpack in the forest, bringing only his coin purse back with him.
As he was drinking, the apprentice named Aryan hurriedly dropped her pestle and ran over. She knelt on the ground, tore open the girl’s outer clothes, and shouted to Elder,
"Teacher! Hurry!"
"Coming, coming..."
Elder mumbled, slowly getting out of his recliner. He walked over, took one look, and drunkenly announced his conclusion.
"You got her here in time. She should live."
’Great!’
Hearing that the girl wouldn’t die—and that the money she owed him was secure—Lu Wei was overjoyed.
"Uncle Elder, please, save her quickly!"
"What’s the rush? Pay up first, then carry her into the back."
"Okay, okay. How much do I owe you?"
"two silver coins."
"Huh? But I have less than one silver coin..."
Lu Wei was stunned. He hadn’t expected it to be so expensive.
Of course, he fully intended to get the money back from the girl sooner or later.
The problem was, he didn’t actually have that much on him.
He had earned seventy Copper Coins from Furen today, and adding the meager savings from his body’s previous owner, he had less than ninety Copper Coins in total.
That wasn’t even half the amount.
"Mr. Elder, can I pay you half now and the rest tomorrow?"
Lu Wei watched Elder nervously, afraid all his hard work would be for nothing.
Fortunately, Doctors in this day and age weren’t completely heartless. Elder just shot him a glance and nodded impatiently.
"Fine, fine. We’ll deal with the after-hours emergency fee later."
"Uh, emergency fee?"
"Of course! It’s late, so there’s an extra charge. Otherwise, we can just wait until morning!"
"..."
’Good grief,’ he thought. ’By tomorrow morning, her corpse would be crawling with maggots.’
The corner of Lu Wei’s mouth twitched, and he mentally retracted his "not completely heartless" assessment.
Meanwhile, Aryan shot Elder a fierce glare, then turned to Lu Wei and said,
"Brother Lu Wei, my teacher’s drunk. You only need to pay one silver coin."
"Oh, okay..."
Lu Wei froze, his gaze shifting to Aryan.
He wasn’t dazed because he had saved a silver coin, but because of how she had addressed him.
’Brother?’
’Are we that close?’