I took Hammer down into the territory.
Grimwald county, the size of a small city, had plenty of brick buildings and plenty of people in the market. It was full of life.
"Why is it so peaceful here?"
"Because the danger is inside the dungeon. It has nothing to do with the people of the territory."
In the original work I had definitely explored not just the mansion but this town quite thoroughly.
It had been a scene straight out of hell.
So they had been living peaceful lives and then an Outer God had suddenly crawled up out of the ground?
Oh wow, instant annihilation?
'I do have to subjugate that thing.'
A future of selling drugs, making money, and opening my own clinic was only possible as long as the territory stayed intact.
First, a test.
"Hehehe."
As we stepped onto the street, a little kid barreled straight into me.
He was holding a green fruit in his hand and running in excitement, apparently not watching where he was going.
Bonk. The child bumped into me and fell.
"Oh no, watch where you're going, you little rascal. Are you all right?"
Hammer hurriedly helped the child up and glanced at me nervously.
"Young Master, it was just a clueless kid making a mistake, so don't get angry. You can forgive this much, can't you?"
I hadn't thought anything of it.
Did she think I would fly into a rage and scold a child over a bump on the street?
It made a good occasion for understanding what level my usual image was at.
My eyes were fixed not on the child but on his hand.
"Kid, hand that over."
I picked up the fruit the kid had dropped in the collision.
A lime. Tart, and widely regarded as a children's snack.
"Why a lime? Gasp, don't tell me...... You're taking the child's snack to punish him! What a cruel and vicious idea."
"You're damn loud. Someone's going to smack that trap of yours one day."
"I've been hit a few times already. Every time, my mithril hammer breathed fire."
I let mana flow out.
"Young Master, what are you—?"
I cast the spell.
I drew a large circle on the ground and wrote the formulas around its rim. Inside, I drew the figures that made it run.
I set a flask and the lime in the center and triggered it.
FWOOM!
The casting completed.
[Multivitamin]
[Vitamin C 1,000mg / B1 10mg / ......]
[Refreshing!]
"Oh."
It came out.
One of the crystallizations of modern medicine, the multivitamin that had become an indispensable staple for busy modern people.
The yellow liquid in the flask sloshed and glittered in the sunlight.
"Young Master, what is this? You made a potion out of a lime......? I've never heard of or seen a potion like this!"
"Drink it. Your gum inflammation will heal."
"Eh. What's this potion called?"
"Hm...... Fatigue Recovery Potion."
Gulp. Hammer tried drinking the vitamin.
"Mmh?!"
And then, at once.
[The prescription takes effect.]
[The patient's scurvy symptoms have improved from 4 to 2.]
Remarkably, the inflammation in Hammer's gums began to visibly subside.
Scurvy normally takes a week of prescription to fully cure. Knights really did have good recovery.
"No, how is this...... my gums really did heal? How did you know?"
Too much bother to explain.
I took back the remaining vitamin, checked it, and answered.
"Medicine. That's medicine."
"Haah......"
As I was standing up, our eyes met.
The little kid Hammer had been looking after. He gazed up at me with brimming eyes.
"What? You want some? Have what's left, then."
When I held out the vitamin, he took it with shining eyes.
Gulp, gulp.
The face that had been on the verge of bursting into tears bloomed into a wide smile.
"It's sour! Yummeh!"
I observed the progress with Diagnose.
[Jonny / Age 6 Male]
[Suspected malnutrition]
[The prescription takes effect.]
[The patient recovers vitality.]
"Thanks! See you later, scary mister!"
It was an age full of energy. The kid took the emptied flask and scampered off.
Perhaps the effect had been amplified thanks to the brewing magic.
Even something like a vitamin showed major improvement.
The possibilities were opening up.
"Haah......"
"What's wrong?"
"I'm surprised. You, showing mercy to a commoner. So the rumors weren't all true. I'm a little moved......"
It was a clinical trial, though.
I could hardly drink it myself.
Your spit was on the flask, too.
"Ah, the flask."
The kid had taken it.
Damn, what a crafty little thing.
Got me.
"Hammer, I have a job for you."
"Yes, sir. Give me any order you like. The Grimwald Knight Order exists to serve you, Young Master."
"Why are you suddenly getting so cringey? Skip the chatter."
I dug a gold coin out of my pocket and handed it over.
"Buy limes at the market. As many as you can."
***
Not long after the dungeon subjugation force's return.
A middle-aged man in a neat formal suit was moving busily about the mansion grounds.
"Are the lodgings and stables prepared?"
"Yes, my lord."
"The Lionheart Knight Order arrives in two weeks. Handle it flawlessly. Above all, show no opening that might invite the imperial court's contempt."
"Leave it to me."
Count Barkus Grimwald.
The current head of House Grimwald, one of the Five Great Houses.
He was a man respected as a renowned commander who had made his name in a past civil war between noble domains.
"What of the dungeon?"
"The Second Platoon has sealed the entrance and stands guard. Nothing unusual to report."
"Mm."
If anything had been troubling him lately, it was that dungeon.
Ever since the Outer Gods' invasion had spread past the east of the continent and begun to threaten the Empire here.
Many smaller noble houses had failed to hold out and fallen.
He took out the letter.
—The dungeon "Swamp of the Abyss" is deemed a grave threat to the Empire; a subjugation force shall be dispatched.
A letter from the imperial court a month ago.
The imperial court held greater military power than any noble house. They would surely be able to subjugate that troublesome dungeon.
Only, that assistance was not entirely welcome.
'There is no counting how many nations have fallen to the Outer Gods' dungeons across the continent. It is the perfect pretext for checking noble houses that have grown their power.'
The very act of an imperial knight order setting muddy boots on the land of Grimwald, one of the Five Great Houses, was a humiliation.
But a cause invoked for the greater good could not be refused.
He had meant to respond before the imperial court moved.
The problem was.
'Dunker. That boy forced his way into taking command, and the right moment was lost.'
He was a thorn in the eye of a son.
The eldest son, but a bastard. His station alone made it impossible to pass down the headship.
Yet casting him out was awkward too. It would only invite mockery from the other houses.
If he had at least been capable, but he was a pathetic son who could use neither sword nor magic.
Talent was not the problem.
The problem was that he had not even the will to learn.
Thanks to Dunker eating up time with his subjugation, he had allowed the imperial court's intervention.
'And the Lionheart Knight Order belongs to that beast of a Third Princess, no less.'
Barkus had seen the Third Princess a few times at social parties.
A sword genius who appeared once in a century.
Two years ago, at the age of sixteen, she had already been a Sword Saint, a master who had ascended to the rank of Sword Master.
Those overflowing with talent were invariably broken somewhere.
'It was truly like looking at a wild beast.'
She was a being from whom no humanity could be felt.
Despite her low place in the succession and weak power within the imperial court, she was a terrifying woman who had grown her influence monstrously in just a few years.
Let her look down on you and she would devour the entire territory. He must not fall out of favor with that woman under any circumstances.
So Barkus had been preparing thoroughly for the visit.
"?"
A curious sight entered his view.
"Hut, two, hut, two! During the run! A marching song! Commence! The song is! Splendid Knight Order!"
"Splendid! Knights! There are many, many!"
It was unmistakably the Grimwald Knight Order's Fourth Platoon.
Barkus asked the butler.
"Those knights running over there. Were they not the dungeon subjugation force?"
"They were, my lord."
"They were nothing but wounded stragglers. How are they already running about? Is that the knight commander at the front? I heard her arm had been eroded."
"You are correct, my lord."
"What in the world happened?"
Among the running knights was one wearing different clothing.
"Dunker?"
It was unmistakably Dunker, the son who had been a thorn in his eye.
"Young Master, you're falling behind!"
"Haah, haah. Tsk, I should have exercised more. Hey, hey, slow down a bit."
"Quit drinking!"
"I quit ages ago, you brat. It's your stamina that's abnormal. This is killing me."
"All hands! The Young Master says he is struggling!"
"Whoaaa! Hut, two! Hut, two!"
The knights seized Dunker's legs from both sides and hoisted him up. They ran on with him mounted like a rider. Dunker's upper body flapped about above the knights' heads.
"What is this sight?"
The butler answered Barkus's question.
"They say that since the campaign, Young Master Dunker has personally treated the wounded."
"Dunker did? That cannot be."
"There was also a report that he cured Commander Charlotte's Erosion in the dungeon."
"The Erosion? Absurd. Is that not the curse that even the Imperial Medical Institute struggles with?"
Barkus could not believe it, yet the subjugation force's Fourth Platoon did indeed look healthier than ever.
Judging by the mood, he seemed to have won their trust as well.
'Could Dunker actually have commanded them properly in the dungeon?'
Barkus had in fact not given Dunker enough troops to clear it.
He could not trust him in the slightest, so it had been the natural judgment.
Even given the whole army, he would obviously have lost them all and come back empty-handed. The knight order was a vital force for the territory and could not be squandered for nothing.
The reason he had bothered to send Knight Commander Charlotte along was so that they would return safely if Dunker wore himself out or died.
Charlotte was young but formidable, and the knight Barkus trusted most.
If that knight commander followed Dunker like this, there had to be a reason.
'Could it be...... that Dunker truly had the will and the ability to break through the dungeon?'
If he had been incompetent, the knights who barely made it back alive would never trust him.
Eight survivors had been the best possible outcome.
'Mm......'
Looking back, he had not had a proper conversation with Dunker in years.
The thought came that perhaps his son had grown up long ago, and he alone had failed to notice.
It was true that he had suppressed Dunker all this time to keep word from reaching other noble houses or the imperial court.
'If Dunker truly has grown.'
He walked toward the running knights.
"The Count is present!"
"All hands, fall in!"
The knights halted on a knife's edge and formed ranks.
In their midst, Dunker, set down by the knights, rose slowly to his feet.
"A peaceful afternoon to you, my lord."
"Dunker."
Barkus looked at him with cold eyes and came to the point.
"I hear you treated the wounded."
"Well now, rumors have no feet and still travel fastest."
"How was that possible?"
Dunker withheld his answer with a relaxed smile.
His air had certainly changed.
Barkus felt a strange sense of trust.
'This is killing me.'
In truth, Dunker had simply run out of stamina from jogging with the knights and could hardly speak.
That silence stirred Barkus all the more.
'Does it mean we are no longer even on terms for question and answer?'
It was a composure that could not come from a man who had built nothing himself.
Perhaps his son had become a man somewhere he could not see.
In place of his silence, Charlotte stepped forward.
"My lord. I will answer the question in his stead."
"Answer, Sir Charlotte."
"Young Master Dunker showed the best command possible under the circumstances in the last campaign. The clearing failed not through his fault but through insufficient troops."
"Is that so."
"The account of the Young Master treating us is by no means idle rumor. He saved me from the Erosion, and he treated every injury, great and small, among all the knights."
If Charlotte said as much, it was certainly all true.
But the greatest question arose at the same time.
"Dunker. Are you saying you studied medicine?"
"I did."
Dunker offered only that short reply and bowed his head.
In truth he was secretly catching his breath, but to Barkus's eyes he looked courteous and dependable.
Charlotte added.
"Young Master Dunker can perform potion brewing in addition to diagnostic magic. He treated us with potions he compounded himself. But what shines above all is his surgical skill with a blade."
"......I see."
Barkus answered flatly, but inwardly he understood how remarkable an achievement his son had built.
Potion brewing was Tier 3 magic. Even with talent, it was a realm one could never reach without steady effort.
'A Physician, then.'
The imperial court's medical institution, the Medical Institute.
The Empire-certified doctors who worked at that institution, said to admit only elites, were called Physicians.
Dunker had been studying in secret all this time, aiming to become a Physician.
Effort that carved away at his own blood, it must have been.
Otherwise a level like Tier 3 could not be explained.
And medicine, of all things.
A discipline an ordinary person could scarcely even approach.
Understanding Dunker's intent, Barkus spoke with dignity.
"Dunker."
"Yes, my lord."
"I have a task to entrust to you."
"What sort of task?"
He unfolded the letter as he spoke.
"The Lionheart Knight Order, dispatched by the imperial court, will arrive shortly."
"What? The Third Princess's Lionheart?"
"Correct. You have experience, so you will serve as guide to the dungeon. And......"
He nodded as he added.
"The Lionheart is said to be in need of medical support. Show me your talent."
Once more.
Barkus resolved to believe in his son.
And Dunker himself, hearing this.
'Damn it.'
Sighed inwardly.
'I got stuck with the grunt work.'