Let me summarize what happened last time.
So….
Somehow, I became a doctor.
“I've been in here about 15 years, you see, and my back hurts.”
“Hmm…. This seems more like a problem with your working posture than something medicine can fix. What position do you use when pulling up herbs?”
“Like this?”
“Oh, good Lord. It's a miracle you're still walking after working like that for 15 years.”
My feelings were complicated.
For one thing, I felt guilty about betraying the expectations of people who relied on me.
And being given attention somehow or another felt better than being isolated and treated like an outcast.
“I've been having a terrible time eating lately. My tooth hurts so badly….”
“Let me see. Hmm…. I'm afraid there isn't much I can do about this.”
“N-Nothing?”
“Medicine can't cure periodontal disease. And since this isn't a hospital, we don't have the necessary equipment.”
“Then I'll have to visit a hospital the next time they give us leave.”
‘They even get leave?’
Still, for people who had spent years living as slaves after scraping by at the bottom of society, my admittedly shabby knowledge as someone who'd placed first in first aid, along with what I knew from my Grade 2 Emergency Rescue Certificate, proved useful.
“I've got this cough… Cough, cough! It just won't stop…. Cough!”
“I'll check your pulse.”
“Mm.”
And whatever I lacked, the 「All-Seeing Eye」 handled for me.
I took a medicine good for coughing from a [Sorted Pile of Medicinal Herbs] I'd prepared beforehand and decocted it in clean water.
After drinking it, the man's symptoms improved dramatically.
The old man's eyes widened, and he broke into a broad smile.
“My cough stopped!”
“From now on, please sleep indoors. The cold, dusty air outside will make your cough worse.”
“Got it! Thank you!”
That was how I finished examining 5 or 6 people.
Most of them showed improvement.
But apparently, medical care was an even rarer service among slaves than I'd expected.
They began holding out pieces of bread, pouches, and other things to me.
“Eat this. It's the bread I was saving.”
“This is milk. It's rare around here.”
“I'll give you this razor blade I've treasured.”
Attention poured in from every direction.
I laughed and tried to refuse, but they forced enough gifts on me to fill both arms.
“Thank you.”
The bread had been compressed and thoroughly dried, making it tough but savory.
The slightly fermented milk was rich and almost cheese-like.
‘This is actually delicious….’
But something even better happened.
“Come eat dinner with us tonight.”
“There's a pretty flower field on the other side of the mine. We'll show you around there too.”
“We were a little cold to you, weren't we? We didn't know you were a doctor. There are so many strange outsiders who come in here….”
It was such a small thing.
Yet it made me incredibly happy.
“Thank you.”
Meanwhile, after they left, I finally breathed a sigh of relief.
My Mana had been running dangerously low.
It was fortunate there had only been 5 patients.
If there'd been any more, I might've ended up in trouble from running out of Mana.
That was what I thought…….
When I woke up the next morning, I nearly jumped out of my skin.
“Ah, you startled me.”
No fewer than 10 slaves had come looking for me!
“Wh-What's going on, everyone?!”
“Um…. We're herb gatherers from the section next door. We heard there's a doctor here who examines people….”
Oh, no.
“See…. For the past few months, every time I use the toilet, there's been all this blood…. I was starting to wonder if I might die.”
“So, are you really a doctor?”
I didn't let my panic show.
For now, I put on an air of gravitas and spoke to them.
“Hmm…. First, form a line.”
Once again, I could only properly examine about 5 people.
But thanks to my many experiences visiting hospitals, I came up with something suitably doctor-like to say.
“Do you smoke cigarettes? And your sleep schedule is a mess too? You can't do that. Stress and cigarettes are the source of all illnesses. First, quit smoking. Sleep on a regular schedule. And try to reduce your stress as much as possible….”
Alcohol, cigarettes, stress!
Who doesn't know that?!
But when a doctor says it, you're supposed to nod along!
Using that as an excuse, I managed to turn away 5 of them.
I told them to come back next time.
“You really are a doctor…. My stomachache's completely gone!”
“No, how can you tell all these herbs apart so easily? We've been looking at them for 10 years, and there are still more we don't recognize than ones we do.”
“Thank you…. This is a bone bracelet I made myself. Let me give it to you.”
Once again, I was showered with praise and gifts.
“It's all right.”
I refused again.
And once again, I ended up with an armful of gifts.
Up to that point, everything was fine.
I'd treated the people I could and postponed those I couldn't.
But then their conversation brought a crisis upon me.
“Those guys in Section 4 kept saying there was no way some doctor had shown up here. Now I can go tell them for certain.”
“The guys in Section 5 told me to stop talking nonsense too. Said there hasn't been a doctor here once in 15 years.”
“Hmm. I should introduce him to that old man in Section 2 as well. It's already been 3 months and 10 days since he broke his leg and started wasting away, hasn't it? He's on his last legs. Surely the doctor can help him.”
Uh.
No.
No!
“Instead of standing around talking, we should go tell them right now.”
I shot a hand into the air.
“Please wait a moment.”
“Hmm? What's wrong, Doctor?”
“Today is difficult for me.”
“Why?”
“I have my assigned gathering work to complete….”
“Ah! We'll help you with that.”
“Right! We can finish our daily quota in 3 or 4 hours. If we have to, we'll even do tomorrow's quota for you!”
I hurriedly made an excuse.
It didn't work.
No.
I don't have any Mana right now!
“Thank you. But that's all right. I should fulfill the duty assigned to me….”
That was when it happened.
One man dropped to his knees in front of me.
“Doctor! Please, hear me out.”
He looked desperate.
“That old man in Section 2 is coughing up blood and could die any day now. If we're even a day late, he might be dead by then. He's been with us for nearly 10 years, and he's a wise old man who's helped us countless times. We can't let him go like this…!”
“Ahh, right…! This isn't the time to talk about people from the other sections!”
“That's right! The other bastards can die for all I care, but that old man can't…!”
I didn't know who he was, but the instant ‘that old man’ came up, every one of them looked desperate.
Apparently, he was something like the godfather of this Herb Mine.
“…But.”
I sighed.
They were this desperate.
It was difficult to refuse.
From here on, I thought I'd have to be partly honest.
“I'm sorry. My medical techniques require Mana.”
“Mana?”
“Yes. And my Mana completely refills every 7 hours, but I've just used all of it examining everyone here.”
They went blank.
“Then you can't do anything at all during those 7 hours?”
“For now… yes.”
“And I used that up just to stop my damn cough? Damn it! We should've brought the old man here first!”
Then they gathered together and began whispering among themselves with me in the middle.
A sudden worry struck me.
What kind of doctor needs Mana?
Even to me, it sounded absurd.
Aren't they going to realize I'm some kind of fake doctor?
Before long, they approached me with grave expressions.
“We've… uh… got some Elixirs stashed away….”
“Pardon?”
“They say they'll let us out after we work here for 20 years. But men like us, what are we supposed to do once we get outside with nothing to our names? We'd have lost our youth, grown old, and end up doing nothing but gathering herbs. The thought of going back out into the world felt hopeless. And every few years, a special herb would turn up….”
They glanced at one another.
I understood.
They'd been smuggling herbs out.
It was a violation of the rules.
Something that might get them killed if discovered.
It was proof that they'd opened their hearts to me.
At the same time, it showed just how desperate they were.
“See…. They say herbs that contain Mana sometimes glow. They have something mysterious about them. So we'd secretly stash away a little whenever we found one….”
Another slave beside him nodded.
“Some could be made into little medicinal balls. We had someone who knew how, so we turned a few into Elixirs too.”
“Right. Selling even one would be enough for every man in our section to buy himself a house out in the provinces….”
In other words, what they wanted to say was this.
“If you'll treat the old man right now, would you be willing to take one of our Elixirs?”
There is a certain expression people wear.
The expression of someone desperately, sincerely pleading from the bottom of their heart.
And because I'd almost never had anyone beg me for something in my life, I was weak to expressions like that.
“Could we not wait a little longer? I'd feel bad accepting something that valuable…. My Mana will refill completely if we just wait about 7 hours.”
“That old man's sharp as a tack. A man with a mind that is clear is lying there wasting away. What if he dies during those 7 hours?”
“Exactly. And what if you don't have enough Mana anyway? You said you ran dry after treating just a handful of us. Even after 7 hours, you might not have enough Mana to treat him.”
“…….”
“And they said the old man started coughing up blood this morning…. We thought you were some quack doctor. We didn't know you'd actually be this miraculous.”
I see.
I decided to accept.
“I'll do everything I can.”
***
The Elixir looked like a thumb-sized dumpling.
Having everyone watch me made me uncomfortable, but I accepted it without protest.
“I'll take it.”
I swallowed it in one bite.
I felt burning energy travel down my esophagus.
The moment it reached my stomach, heat spread throughout my entire body.
Part of it followed a path upward toward my head.
There was some kind of ‘energy’ inside it.
It was fierce and aggressive.
Completely uncontrollable.
That was only natural.
I'd never learned how to control something like this.
‘Damn it.’
Energy that veered toward my ears ripped at my eardrums.
Energy that shot toward my nose clawed through my sinuses.
I nearly sneezed involuntarily, but bit my tongue hard enough to draw blood and forced myself to calm down.
But I couldn't stop the blood running from my nose.
“Hey, Doctor!”
“Are you all right?!”
An Elixir wasn't some convenient piece of candy.
It was condensed.
And when that power was released, naturally it burst outward.
By analogy, an Elixir was a kind of bomb.
“Doctor! Hey! Are you all right?!”
Their worried voices reached me.
I wasn't all right.
At this rate, I wouldn't even absorb it properly.
I'd obviously end up wasting nearly all of something this precious.
What should I do?
My eye!
Right.
My eye.
I could make the 「All-Seeing Eye」 control this violent energy that I couldn't control myself!
The moment I directed the energy toward my eye, it was subdued instantly.
I was startled inwardly.
That vicious energy became as docile as a lamb and began circling around my eye.
‘Good God.’
A moment ago, it felt like swallowing a blade down my throat.
Now it felt like savoring whipped cream.
Afterward, I opened my eyes.
And witnessed an astonishing change.
The moment the 「All-Seeing Eye」 devoured the Mana, the entire world began looking a little clearer.
By analogy—
it was as though I'd been born from my mother's womb wearing fogged-up glasses.
And only now had I taken them off!
‘How is this possible….’
Is this the world where powerful people live?
My eye had just ‘evolved.’
I looked at the slaves.
The moment I thought I wanted to see them more closely, every detail of their irises came into view.
When I looked at their hair, I could even see the cuticle layers.
At the same time, my Mana had increased dramatically.
It had more than doubled.
It was astonishing.
“It's done. It worked.”
“Worked?”
“Yes. Let me see the patient.”
I sprang to my feet and started walking.
The others followed behind me.
The old man in the neighboring section had the kind of illness that could be treated with medicine.
I'd been worried it might require surgery, but fortunately, it didn't.
His breathing was unstable.
It seemed as though it might stop entirely before long.
But after I combined several medicinal ingredients and gave them to him, his breathing quickly returned.
I had to remain beside him for nearly 14 hours, repeatedly administering different medicines.
In total, it consumed as much as 300 Mana.
Without the Elixir, treating him would've been impossible.
“Th-Thank goodness!”
“He's improving…!”
Looking at the old man now lying quietly and sweating coldly—
for some reason, I thought of my mother's final days.
After Father died on the execution platform, Mother was left alone.
Then, for no apparent reason, she slowly fell ill.
Around the time I was 13, she died for reasons no one understood.
If I'd possessed an ability like this back then, could Mother have survived?
I knew there was nothing more meaningless than regretting time that had already passed.
And yet, I still regretted it.
‘Samael. Become a good person.’
‘Step forward to protect the weak. Give bread to the hungry.’
‘Keep your promises and your conscience. Do not turn your eyes away from injustice.’
Still—
if Mother could see me now, wouldn't she be happy?
I stared blankly as I thought about that.
Over the next several days, I lived as the doctor of the mine and treated countless people.
Thanks to that, dozens of people who had been wasting away improved, and smiles blossomed across their faces.
Of course, there were cases I couldn't treat.
Dental patients.
People suffering from illnesses like cancer that couldn't be cured with medicinal herbs.
Or cases that required surgery.
Fortunately, everyone understood.
Around then, the old man everyone treated so specially opened his eyes.
“You're awake. I'll prepare some warm rice gruel.”
“Ahh, thank you….”
He looked at me with a peaceful expression.
I lit a fire.
Heated water.
And while I slowly simmered millet into a thin gruel, he spoke in a weak voice.
“I have watched you for several days. I also know that you saved my life. Thank you.”
It was strange.
There was dignity in the old man's voice.
He carried a certain weight as a person.
An air of maturity as an elder.
We'd only exchanged a few words, yet I could already understand why the rough slaves here held him in such esteem.
“It was nothing. Everyone was worried about you. Please don't speak too much. You must still be weak….”
“But there is something I am curious about.”
“Go ahead.”
The old man spoke slowly.
“How is someone who is not a doctor so proficient in medicine (medical science)?”