'What did the Grand Physician just say?'
'Offering a Physician's post to a young man of such unknown origin.'
'Does he mean to say he has found that much talent in that young man?'
The gazes of the Physicians converged. The sight of Grand Physician Archibald personally extending an offer of a Physician's post was rare enough, but the reaction of the young man called Dunker was stranger still.
"How much does the pay come to?"
"Haha, an audacious man. Is a salary more important to you than the sense of duty to heal patients?"
"Of course the patient comes first. But I can hardly sell my talent at a discount, can I?"
Inferring from Hammer's account, the Medical Institute was much like a university hospital.
Dunker had not the slightest desire to grind his way up from the bottom through that dreadful internship again.
'I'd sooner enlist a second time.'
What sort of job was an intern doctor?
Going without sleep and having your days and nights flipped around at any moment was the baseline. It was the frontline of medicine where you had to stay tense at all times, an emotional trash can that took the full brunt of every doctor's stress on your own body.
'That young man—what did he just say?'
'He is refusing an offer of a Physician's post?'
The Physicians were appalled at Dunker's answer.
In the Empire today, an Imperial Physician was an honor in itself, a post not just anyone could attain.
Archibald, on the contrary, took Dunker for a young man of conviction.
'He knows the exact worth of himself. He phrased it as a salary, but what he wants is a high position. Does he mean he would rather judge treatments for himself than merely follow orders from above?'
A tremendous confidence could be felt from him.
"What is your name?"
"Dunker Grimwald, sir."
"I did not know House Grimwald had an illegitimate son."
"I am a rather shameful son, you see."
"So, then. What do you take to be the cause of the Lionheart's oral bleeding?"
"What do you think, sir?"
An audacious young man, turning the question back on him.
Debate breaking out over a patient stricken with an affliction was a common thing at the Medical Institute.
This must be cured with external medicine.
No, the constitution must be improved with internal medicine first.
None of that is needed, just pour potions into him.
I have treated more patients than you have eaten meals.
What do you know, making a fuss like this. And so on.
Archibald, among them, was the Tower Master of the Tower of Special Medicine, which specialized in theory.
Rather than finding Dunker's question rude, his curiosity as an investigator came first.
"I do not believe it has any relation to the region. It is a symptom that occurs commonly among travelers who have left their homeland."
"Precisely. Which means the cause lies not in the region but in the environment of travel itself, does it not?"
"A sound inference."
"A sailor aboard a ship, a knight on a long expedition. These men have something in common."
Archibald thought it over carefully.
Soon he said, in a low voice.
"……Malnutrition, is it?"
"Correct. A simple symptom—lethal if it worsens, yet resolved by supplying nothing but nutrition."
Dunker snapped his fingers.
One of the Physicians who had been listening stepped forward and objected to Dunker's claim.
"According to the Tower of Internal Medicine's papers, oral bleeding is an endemic disease. Their supplies were sufficient, so malnutrition cannot be the cause."
"Tower of Internal Medicine? Is that like an internal medicine department?"
"It is one of the Four Medical Towers, where the afflictions within our bodies are researched and treated."
At the Physician's words, Dunker let out a light scoff.
"By that theory, every country farmer who moves up to the Imperial Capital would have his guts rot out. But as you know, scurvy shows up on long expeditions or sea voyages."
"That is……."
"He has a point. Food of every type is hard to come by while traveling."
Archibald agreed.
"There are many kinds of nutrients. Wheat, meat, milk. The components you obtain from each are all different."
"You mean the symptom arises because a specific nutrient is lacking. And this potion is a mechanism that supplies that nutrient intensively."
"Oh, that's quite good, sir."
"Which nutrient is it?"
"A component found mainly in fruit. I call it vitamin."
"Vitamin, is it? So that is why the potion bears that name."
For Dunker, after all this time talking to a wall, it finally felt like communicating with a person.
Archibald stepped forward and addressed a knight in one of the sickbeds.
"Knight, how long has it been since you left the Imperial Capital and set out on this expedition?"
It was an interview for verification.
Dunker found it interesting that the action came so naturally to him.
"The expedition has just passed one year."
"Have you eaten any fruit during the expedition?"
"I have not. In the last few months especially, we had to cross the frigid north and the desert……. We ate only the bread and jerky supplied to us by the grand duchy."
"Mm. A sailor out at sea would be in the same environment. It fits together logically."
Archibald's gaze turned to the yellow solution held in the flask.
"How is it administered?"
"Half a bottle orally at twelve-hour intervals, and the symptoms are observed. High doses only at the start, and once improvement is confirmed, it is reduced to a quarter."
"And the side effects of overdose?"
"You may consider them virtually nonexistent. The body absorbs only as much of the component as it needs. Though heartburn and diarrhea should be watched for."
"I see."
Grand Physician Archibald did not let it show, but he was greatly impressed.
The young man answered every one of his many questions without hesitation, and though he had never set foot in the Medical Institute, his treatment process was professional.
To establish the cause, symptoms, and treatment of an affliction in theoretical terms.
Even among the Institute's four towers—the Tower of External Medicine, the Tower of Internal Medicine, the Tower of Pharmacy, and the Tower of Special Medicine—it was a trait held only by the Tower of Special Medicine, where Archibald served as Tower Master.
Just watching him manage the patients in the infirmary showed he was no novice.
It was the first time a self-proclaimed doctor with no particular background had displayed this much expertise.
"You may or may not be aware, but it is illegal for one without a Physician's license to treat an Imperial knight."
"……Really?"
For a moment a chill ran down Dunker's spine.
"Knights are the only means of resisting the Outer Gods. To lose one to some wandering quack is a national loss. What is more."
Archibald held up the potion bottle as he spoke.
"If he has prescribed a potion not licensed by the Medical Institute."
Dunker fell silent.
My drug-peddling plan, collapsing just like that.
I was going to sell all of this to the Third Princess and use it as capital for my own hospital.
"Am I going to be arrested?"
"Haha."
Archibald laughed, a deep and dignified sound, and set the potion bottle down with a clink.
"I shall license it myself, so do not worry."
"Oh, really. Thank you, sir."
"In exchange, I would like to observe your practice. Would that be acceptable?"
"That much, any time you like."
Dunker recorded the progress of the patients he had prescribed for on a chart. The Healing Knights assisted him.
"Patient seven is showing severe fever as well. Prescribe an Antipyretic Potion, report the progress in six hours."
"Yes, sir."
Dunker grasped each patient's condition coolly and took the appropriate measures.
'An interesting talent.'
Archibald decided, with anticipation, to keep an eye on him for a while.
***
"I am honored to be in your presence."
That night, with the day's practice concluded, Grand Physician Archibald had an audience with Third Princess Schnellia.
Standing proudly beneath the moonlight, she looked like a figure out of a painting.
"The Tower of Special Medicine has been assigned to dispatch a medical corps in support of this subjugation of the Swamp of the Abyss."
"I shall be counting on you."
Schnellia offered nothing but a businesslike reply, her eyes sharp.
Archibald knew her well.
Chief Justice, Judge, Grand Knight Commander.
One of the Imperial Capital's few high offices. The Grand Physician stood at the pinnacle of power.
There was no way for such a man not to know the Empire's Greatest Sword, the rising prodigy of the imperial family. Although this was his first time meeting her directly, outside of official ceremonies.
'She is as formidable as the rumors say.'
Archibald spoke with all due courtesy.
It felt as though he would be swallowed by that overwhelming aura the moment he let his mind slip.
"How fares the Lionheart?"
"The oral bleeding and other minor afflictions are being treated without issue. They will be fit to march within a week."
"And the Grimwald young master? How was he?"
So she asks about him right away.
Her eye for talent was astonishing.
To show such insight with a young mind that had not yet even come of age.
"I believe he possesses considerable medical knowledge and medical technique."
"Considerable, is it?"
Archibald held his tongue.
The knowledge Dunker possessed was not merely considerable.
That man was a rarity.
But he had no particular wish to make a fuss about it.
"I leave the medical corps to you."
"I accept the charge."
After the brief exchange, Archibald left the audience chamber.
'This could go badly.'
I may well have him stolen away by the Third Princess before I can even lure him in as a Physician.
***
It was several days after the Lionheart entered the territory.