"North Wind!"
Charlotte's sword drew a clean arc.
At the same moment, though we were underground with walls on every side, wind whipped up as if a typhoon had struck.
The fierce wind was more than enough to tear the enemy apart.
—SSH...... SHAAAAAA!
Soon the pitch-black aberration, the Outer God's Apostle, vanished without a trace.
"We... won."
"We survived......!"
"Commander, we have slain the Apostle!"
The knights let go of their tension and cheered.
In this subjugation campaign, which had been filled with nothing but despair as they lost comrade after comrade, it was the first complete victory they had tasted.
Charlotte flicked her sword clean, sheathed it, and drew a deep breath.
"The credit is yours, Young Master. It was because you saved me from the Erosion that I could swing a sword."
"You're the one who saved me, Commander. Impressive skill. That aura made me think I was looking at a Sword Saint."
"You flatter me."
In truth, Charlotte had the talent to become a Master. Too valuable a talent to fall in a backwater like this.
"We have felled the Apostle, but the Outer God's nest may lie somewhere underground here. What is your decision on the search?"
"The surgery succeeded, but the follow-up isn't done. The Commander's arm needs suturing. This is no time to keep fighting. We retreat."
"I-Is that for real?"
The Healing Knight cried out as if startled by what I said.
"Why so surprised? It's the obvious call. The Commander has three fresh incisions in living flesh. She needs rest."
"That is true, but...... I suppose I was surprised you said something so sensible, Young Master."
"What on earth do you people think I am?"
Then again, given everything I had done, that reaction was only natural.
For the glory of House Grimwald. Fight with honor. I had spouted that sort of thing and dragged this campaign along by force.
But I was different now. Thanks to a twenty-first century value system being installed.
'What good is honor if you're dead? Toss that crap to the dogs.'
Go any deeper and I would be eroded by an Outer God and turned into a boss mob, just like in the original work.
I'd have to be insane to throw myself off a cliff.
"Healing Knight, what's your name?"
"My name? It's Hammer."
"How is Hammer a person's name?"
"I've got a hammer too."
The Healing Knight pulled a vicious-looking hammer out of her coat.
"What do you use that for?"
"For setting broken bones and the like, of course."
"Unbelievable. Hey, Hammer, watch the Commander's arm. Tell me the moment the bleeding gets worse."
"Yes, sir."
"Then we return."
And so we began to make our way back up through the loathsome dungeon toward the entrance.
***
When we emerged from the dungeon, dazzling sunlight greeted us.
Barely made it out alive.
"The subjugation force has returned!"
"They came back alive from the Swamp of the Abyss?"
The guard unit stationed at the entrance stirred into motion.
Together with Charlotte and Hammer, I decided to head back to the Grimwald mansion adjoining the knight order's barracks.
In the distance I could see tenant farmers working the fields in peace. As a count's house's territory, it was a considerable size. The county had grown to roughly the scale of a decent city.
About an hour by carriage brought us to the grounds of an enormous mansion.
First, to the barracks infirmary.
'Our knight order was fairly large.'
The county lay in the western part of the Empire. Our house was counted among the Empire's Five Great Houses, with considerable influence.
Which also meant we were permitted to raise that many troops.
Unlike the actual Middle Ages, the number of people holding the title of knight was enormous.
This world was under invasion by the Outer Gods. To humanity they were an enemy too powerful to comprehend, and difficult even to face properly.
'Only the chosen, who can wield aura through a weapon, can fight the Outer Gods.'
Only those with that talent earned the right to become knights. Sword, spear, or fist weapon, monsters could be killed only with a weapon charged with aura.
Ordinary soldiers were effectively useless in a war against the Outer Gods, so units composed entirely of knights were common.
"Mmh."
The barracks infirmary. Commander Charlotte, lying on a sickbed, let out a low groan.
The bandage I had applied to her left arm had soaked through bright red.
"I need a needle and thread. Water at a rolling boil, too."
"I'll get them ready."
Hammer was quick on her feet.
"These are clean."
"Because you stressed it, Young Master."
"I like that."
"Thanks."
Given the level of this world, grasping the concept of hygiene even vaguely from a word or two deserved high praise.
"Commander, this will sting. Bear with it."
"It should be better than fighting monsters."
A tough woman.
As I stitched the wound with quick strokes, Hammer, assisting beside me, had stars in her eyes.
"Your hands are incredibly fast. Did you learn tailoring too?"
"With better equipment I'd have been faster."
"That much? I'd like to ask you to mend my doll sometime."
"Is that something to say right now?"
"I can't sleep at night without it."
Snip. I cut the end of the knot with scissors and finished.
"Young Master, my arm...... has it been cured?"
"Yes. We'll have to watch how it progresses, but don't strain it for at least two months."
"Haah. Thank you. Without the erosion, a wound like this heals in five days."
"Only five days? By my estimate that's a two-month recovery."
"Yes. Thanks to aura."
"That's broken as hell."
There had been a setting like that.
Aura users had natural healing several to several dozen times that of ordinary people, wasn't it?
It was also why they could fight endlessly as long as they resisted the Erosion with potions.
"Wow, that's the first time I've ever seen a real incision and suture. Usually cauterizing is more efficient."
"Who gave you the title of Healing Knight? Some quack plague doctor?"
"That's harsh. It's a title you only get after studying as an Apprentice Physician at the Imperial Medical Institute."
"The Medical Institute."
I recalled hearing of it at some point.
A medical institution operated by the imperial court in the Imperial Capital.
"It's a tower where only the Empire's finest doctors gather. They're still researching medical techniques to counter the Erosion. Believe it or not, I was top of my class."
"If the top student is at that level, I can guess what shape the Imperial Medical Institute is in."
"That's too much. I have a mithril hammer, you know?"
In the original work's timeline, the Imperial Capital had already been occupied by the Outer Gods and the imperial court had relocated, a dire situation.
I remembered because there was a quest to infiltrate the old Medical Institute tower and find a clue to stopping the Erosion.
'Something like a university hospital of this era, maybe.'
Normally medical students do internships at a university hospital alongside their studies and become residents after graduating.
After grinding through residency for a good while you become a fellow, and from then on you are a specialist.
Some stay on at the university all the way to professor, but most set up a private clinic and go independent.
'I really wanted a clinic of my own.'
Could I talk to my father and ask him to set one up for me?
No chance of that. I wasn't after praise, but I had come back alive from the jaws of death and he had not shown his face once.
Put simply, I was a son they had written off.
There was no way he would give that kind of support to a bastard like me.
It was because of that lifelong relationship that I had forced my way into leading the dungeon subjugation.
'And if that dungeon isn't subjugated, House Grimwald disappears entirely to begin with.'
Forget opening a clinic. I would be living hand to mouth.
Was this dark fantasy world's difficulty for real?
While I was grumbling internally, Hammer had taken hold of Charlotte's arm and was up to something strange.
"Let's see. Pulse and blood pressure are fine, and aura output is normal too. She'll be fully healed soon."
She spoke while looking at a glowing figure in midair.
A large circle packed densely with letters and geometric shapes.
A magic circle.
"What is that?"
"It's a pulse-measurement spell."
"You checked the heartbeat?"
"It can measure blood pressure and body temperature too. It's a Tier 1 spell they teach as a basic at the Medical Institute...... Weren't you a doctor, Young Master?"
What was this?
Damn impressive.
No concept of hygiene, and yet they had these bizarre medical spells.
"Young Master, don't tell me you called yourself a doctor without even learning diagnostic magic? Are you actually a plague doct—"
"How do you use that?"
"Well...... it's like ordinary magic, isn't it? You draw the circle with aura...... with mana, in your case, and activate it."
Wow, thanks for the kind explanation.
Crystal clear.
How was that different from "press X and magic comes out"?
"Hammer, the Young Master has never studied magic. When he was young the head of the house engaged three magic tutors for him, but every time the tutor gave up in astonishment and quit."
Why did she know that?
Was my reputation all right like this?
I did recall hurling the book aside over pie-in-the-sky talk about befriending mana and feeling the energy.
"Is that so? Well, talent matters especially in magic. Everyone has mana, but if you don't know how to handle it, forget Tier 1, you can't even use Tier Zero."
"The Young Master must have studied medicine in a different direction."
"True enough, his surgical skill was outstanding. Don't be too disappointed, Young Master. There are plenty of surgical Physicians who can't use magic—"
Swish.
I tried drawing a magic circle in midair.
FWOOM! The spell flared.
"What."
Thump, thump.
The outer ring responded as though the circle itself were pulsing.
Had it detected my heart sounds?
This was fascinating.
"Young Master, how did you use that?!"
"You showed me. I copied it roughly."
"No, it doesn't work just from watching and copying. You have to start by learning mana detection—"
"It worked."
"That's impossible. It took me five years just to learn Tier 1!"
"Worked."
"Come on, I get it. You could use it all along, right? Well, you're a doctor, so of course you'd have learned it!"
When I looked at her as if I had no idea what she was talking about, Hammer's mouth fell open.
"......Seriously? You never learned even basic diagnostic magic, you showed us a surgery no one has ever seen, and now you can cast Tier 1 on the spot?"
"That's how it turned out."
"Then what was all that time I spent working to come out on top of my class?"
Hammer clutched her head.
What did she want from me? Was I supposed to say it didn't work when it did?
"What other magic is there? Anything you know?"
"There aren't many I can use. I was learning potion-brewing magic and gave up because it was too hard."
"Potion brewing? With that, could you make Erosion Resistance Potions too?"
"Erosion Resistance is a no. The recipe isn't public. But with materials you can make all kinds of things. Like making a Thaw Potion out of flameweed, which heats the body up."
Wait.
Was she talking about pharmaceutical manufacturing?
At last I had found a point where this dark fantasy medieval world beat the modern one.
You could produce pharmaceuticals with one click of a spell, without all that expensive cutting-edge equipment or a sterile environment?
"I smell something."
"Of course I stink, I couldn't wash for weeks underground. That's too much."
"The smell of money, I mean. Money."
There was no chance this era had hospital pharmaceuticals like disinfectants or antibiotics.
Without the infrastructure, my medical knowledge was only half of what it should be. What use was surgery if the patient died of infection afterward?
Penicillin, metronidazole, chloramphenicol, heparin, epinephrine.
I was the only one who could make any of them.
"Hammer, teach me the potion-brewing magic."
"I told you, I can't use it either. The spell circle, let's see, it looks like this."
Hammer drew the figure on paper for me.
For some reason, though I had never learned the first thing about magic, I understood the principle by which this spell worked.
"Like this?"
Swish, swish.
I drew the spell and triggered it.
FLASH.
The magic circle glowed blue and then melted away.
"Hm, it didn't work."
I was disappointed, but for some reason Hammer had frozen beside me with her mouth hanging open.
"What?"
"No, how on earth...... Did you cast that?"
"Didn't it fail?"
"No! That was just because you didn't put materials in. The spell activated perfectly! Wow, this is unbelievable!"
Oh.
So a pharmaceutical factory had just landed in my hands.
"I've been fooled all this time. You spent twenty years acting incompetent? When on earth did you study medicine and magic— HATCHOO!"
Ugh, disgusting.
Pick one. Talk or sneeze.
But then.
"Did you just cough up blood?"
"Huh? Ah, it must be from my gums. It's usually like this after an expedition. Not a big deal."
"Diagnose."
[Hammer / Age 22 Female]
[Moderate obesity]
[Suspected early-stage scurvy]
Ah, scurvy.
Underground for so long with no fresh vegetables or fruit, it was a disease that could easily arise.
Some of the other knights had shown signs of it as well.
A good idea came to me.
And a suitable test subject happened to be standing right in front of me.
"Hammer, follow me."
"Where are we going?"
I answered with a grin.
"To make a potion."