Chapter 47
*
“What solution did the student come up with? And what was our auxiliary medicine?”
Under the shadow of the fedora.
Julian’s sharp gaze turned to Ellie.
‘That’s a pretty interesting question.’
Strictly speaking, it wasn’t a very high-level question.
Julian had already recognized the side effects of insulin and was preparing for them in advance.
In that regard, he’d already sent the guidelines to the Healing Order.
The healers were already dealing with the side effects by following those guidelines, using an auxiliary medicine made by Mercure Trading Company.
It had been that way for two years already.
In other words, Ellie’s question was, in a sense, dead knowledge.
But,
‘She must have been paying attention in class.’
Julian didn’t forget that she was a high school student, and that the only ways she could learn were textbooks and the academy.
‘School-taught knowledge has to be correct, so it can’t be helped.’
Textbook knowledge is quite conservative.
They can’t teach wrong information to students who are still building their foundations.
Compared to his previous life, where information was updated every year in the field, textbooks updated at a very slow pace.
Especially in a world without the internet.
It was only natural that Ellie wouldn’t know the correct answer.
‘Rather, I should take it as proof that she paid attention in class.’
That was why Ellie, asking such a question, only seemed admirable to Julian.
There was just the minor problem that she didn’t realize what image she was currently projecting.
‘Answer comfortably.’
Julian thought he was playing the role of a kind tall benefactor in his own way.
A mysterious, reliable adult who was always gentle with children and never skimped on investment.
He was projecting that sort of adult figure onto himself.
But the person actually sitting at the head of the dining room was an entirely different figure.
A genius half-elf director, his face hidden in the fedora’s shadow, whose depths of knowledge were impossible to fathom.
The weight of a question from such a director to a high school student couldn’t possibly feel light, no matter how much he consciously chose gentle words and a gentle voice.
‘Ugh... Maybe I shouldn’t have brought up the question.’
At the sharp(?) gaze of Director Shun, felt through the shadow of the fedora, Ellie dropped her eyes to the table.
She wasn’t afraid that Director Shun would harm her.
It was more like a student being afraid to answer a professor,
a discomfort that was hard to put into words.
‘Still, I did ask a question. I prepared an answer too.’
For a long while, Ellie took a breath while staring down the white tablecloth.
Soon she gathered her courage and answered Director Shun.
“Digitalis....”
In spite of her resolve, her voice gradually shrank.
“It’s a material mainly used in potions of Concentration, and... it slows the heartbeat while strengthening the heart’s pumping force.”
Ellie recalled what she’d learned in a recent class.
In alchemy, there’s a potion called a “Potion of Concentration,” used as doping when focusing on sniping or spellcasting.
Among its ingredients is the herb digitalis, used to slow the heartbeat and strengthen the heart’s contractile force.
It was also a potion used for elderly people with weak hearts.
“When the heart weakens from an insulin overdose, I thought maybe digitalis could help support its contractility... something like that.”
Ellie waited for Director Shun’s reaction.
Director Shun fell silent for a moment.
Ellie’s fingers once again fiddled with her glasses frame.
Soon Director Shun opened his mouth again.
“You’ve really studied hard.”
Julian’s voice was still gentle.
Ellie’s shoulders relaxed a little.
“Logically, it’s a reasonable guess. The heart has weakened, so you use a medicine that makes the heart stronger. That’s an intuitive, rational approach.”
“…Thank you.”
“However.”
Julian’s fingers stopped on the tabletop.
“Unfortunately, the mechanism behind cardiac arrest caused by insulin overdose is a little different.”
“Is that... so?”
“Yes. The side effect of insulin isn’t that the heart weakens and stops. It’s that the potassium concentration in the blood drops rapidly, and then it stops.”
Ellie’s eyes blinked.
Potassium.
Of course, it was an element that an aspiring alchemist living and struggling with the periodic table had no choice but to know.
But connecting it to the heart was a first.
“Insulin draws glucose into the cells, and potassium comes along with it. So the potassium concentration in the blood drops sharply. If digitalis is administered in that state....”
Julian paused for a moment.
Then he looked over the students’ faces once.
Vacant stares were fixed on his hat.
Even Erica was dozing beside him, nodding off.
“….”
A faint bitter smile spread across Julian’s lips.
The people he was dealing with were middle and high school students.
And there were even students from unrelated departments mixed in.
Above all, this was a dining hall, not a classroom.
He realized his mistake and corrected himself.
“I’ll explain it more simply. Insulin has the property of maximizing digitalis’s effect. Like oil and fire.”
A few of them nodded.
Most were top students from departments that sat at desks for long periods.
Students in the more physically active departments, like Erica, didn’t understand, but they simply nodded anyway.
“So if you administer them together, digitalis actually causes cardiac arrest. Instead of helping a weakened heart, it stops a perfectly healthy one.”
“I-I see. That was presumptuous of me...”
“No, it was a good question.”
The lower half of Director Shun’s face curved into a slight smile.
“There’s no need to fear asking questions or apologize for them. Rather, that’s the desirable attitude of a scholar.”
“….”
“And didn’t I say this was something you learn in the healing studies department? It’s only natural for an alchemy student in the middle school division not to know. In fact, the fact that you thought that far is impressive.”
As he spoke, Julian glanced toward the dining hall entrance.
He was checking whether the next course had come out.
It seemed there was still time before the next dish arrived, so he continued.
“And as for the answer to your question, you use an auxiliary medicine called Hartmann solution.”
Hartmann solution.
In the world Julian originally came from, it was an IV fluid created by a doctor named Alexis Hartmann.
The origin of the name was, of course, the creator’s surname.
But in this world, Julian had made it himself.
When he created Hartmann solution,
he’d also considered naming it Schnabel solution.
But just as quinine wasn’t called ‘tinin’,
he named the solution Hartmann solution as well, simply because he kept getting them mixed up.
‘Come to think of it, Ringer was a person’s name too...’
Pushing the chain of stray thoughts to the corner, Julian explained Hartmann solution to Ellie.
“It’s Ringer’s solution made by adding potassium salts, sodium, and lactic acid.”
“R-Ringer?”
“You know what Ringer’s solution is, right?”
“Yes... I do.”
The alchemy student Ellie and the aspiring healer Ayla nodded.
Ringer’s solution was also one of the medicines supplied by Mercure Trading Company.
It was mainly a medicine for treating patients with massive blood loss or dehydration, a basic treatment taught from the middle school division onward.
‘I never would have imagined there was such a Ringer... Director really had thought of everything.’
Of course, they still hadn’t learned Hartmann solution in the middle school curriculum.
That was why the fact that an IV could reduce insulin’s side effects felt fresh to Ellie.
Director Shun gave the students an awkward smile and said,
“It wasn’t that special an auxiliary medicine. Still, you really studied hard. I’m looking forward to you becoming an even better alchemist in the future...”
At that moment.
Director Shun’s mouth clamped shut.
“….”
The students looked at him with puzzled expressions.
The person who had been speaking gently until just a moment ago suddenly stopped.
What was going on?
The students tensed up and watched Director Shun’s expression.
“Director...?”
Erica called out carefully.
He didn’t answer, keeping his gaze fixed somewhere in the empty air.
“…Hmm.”
After letting out a low murmur for a while,
he opened his mouth again.
“Talking with the student, I suddenly realized this could be used in reverse. Why hadn’t I thought of this sooner...”
“Pardon?”
“Insulin seems to have a protective effect on the heart muscle.”
Julian took out his notebook.
Scratch, scratch.
[GIK Protocol]
A treatment method in which glucose and potassium are pre-injected into the blood, then insulin is administered to push potassium into the heart.
Acute myocardial infarction, open-chest heart surgery, severe trauma, and sepsis...
It was a modified use of insulin that Julian often used in his previous life.
‘Why had I forgotten this?’
It was so obvious that he’d forgotten it.
Like a fish forgetting that it’s in the sea,
the GIK treatment was so obvious that Julian hadn’t even thought to present it.
He even slipped a bookmark into the notebook in case the memory evaporated.
“….”
The students stared blankly at Julian.
A student frozen with a spoon in hand.
A student who’d stopped halfway through chewing a blini.
A student who’d lifted a water glass to their mouth and stalled.
The story of a genius archmage who, after getting inspired while bathing, ran out into the streets came to mind of its own accord.
The room was wrapped in an eerie silence.
And Erica, beside him, pressed a hand to her forehead as if she couldn’t take it.
Once he finished taking notes, Julian raised his head again.
“Thank you, Ellie.”
“Y-yes... Did something new come to you?”
“Not exactly. Thanks to you, I was able to think of a new use for insulin. Rather than inventing something new, I just need to add instructions to the medicines already being sold by the company.”
Julian said as he tucked the notebook against his chest.
“It’ll be snowing soon, so I’ll have to telegraph the guidelines to the Healing Order then. It’ll be a huge help to patients with heart disease in winter.”
At the earliest, wouldn’t this become a standard emergency-care protocol by next spring?
Thinking that, Julian smiled gently.
“It was truly a wonderful time.”
Ellie’s heart pounded hard.
It wasn’t the flutter of young romance.
It was because, as a scholar, her heart was racing at the fact that she’d contributed to a breakthrough that would leave a mark on history.
The other students also looked at Ellie with envious eyes.
Along with that, a small murmur rose among them.
“What just happened?”
“Who knows... He was talking about insulin, then suddenly...”
“I get how he thought of a new treatment.”
“While talking?”
“Is that even possible...?”
Julian let the students’ whispers go.
A flood of praise after a long time.
He endured the urge for the corners of his mouth to keep rising.
‘Just from an IV fluid, and they’re reacting like this.’
To him, Ringer’s solution was the easiest medicine he’d ever made.
No, it was almost embarrassing to call it a medicine.
All he did was mix potassium chloride, sodium, and so on into clean water made by magic.
Development time: one week.
He could confidently say there would never be a more shamelessly easy invention in Julian’s lifetime.
And yet the students were reacting to that IV fluid and insulin combination as if it were the discovery of the century.
‘At this rate, I might end up thinking I’m a genius too.’
Creak.
Just then, with the sound of a door opening, Julian returned to reality.
“The main dish is ready, if that’s all right, Director?”
“Ah, please do, Chef.”
The chef nodded and snapped his fingers.
Before long, ten staff members entered the room carrying silver trays.
“Today’s main is Beef Wellington.”
Julian concentrated on the chef’s explanation.
With the thought that this world made it far too easy to play genius.
***
Civitas Square.
In front of the boarding house where Ayla and Valeria lived.
Under the glow of the streetlamps, a woman was pacing.
She was a priestess, the mother of the two daughters.
She kept glancing down the street over and over, waiting for the carriage carrying her daughters to arrive.
‘They’ll come back safely...’
Of course, she wasn’t without worry.
Even if it was a banquet hosted by the scholarship foundation, keeping the children out until this late was strange.
Could something have happened?
Could this Director Shun person not be a bad man?
Such worries kept piling on one after another.
Then it happened.
Clatter, clatter.
The sound of carriage wheels rolling over the road came drifting in.
The priestess snapped her head up.
A carriage appeared at the end of the street.
When she confirmed the carriage bearing the foundation’s mark, her heart started pounding.
Before long, the carriage came to a stop in front of the boarding house.
“Mom!”
Ayla jumped down first.
Valeria followed after her, stepping down more slowly.
“….”
The priestess checked her daughters’ faces.
She fretted over whether they were hurt, whether they’d gone through anything frightening.
Fortunately, both daughters had bright expressions.
Their faces almost seemed to glow.
Relief drained the strength from the priestess’s shoulders.
“Let’s hurry inside. It’s cold out. Thank you for bringing them home, driver.”
“Please go in, ma’am!”
Clack, clack.
The driver gave them a warm smile and disappeared back into the darkness of the street.
The priestess led her two daughters into the room.
A narrow rented room on the second floor of the boarding house.
After returning home, the priestess sat down across from her daughters at the table and asked,
“How was it? This Director Shun person...”
Ayla smiled brightly as if she’d been waiting for it.
“The food was super delicious, and Director was really kind!”
“I-Is that so?”
“Yeah! He even knew that I like growing flowers!”
The priestess’s eyebrows rose slightly.
It was a reaction far beyond what she had expected.
The priestess then asked Valeria as well.
“What about our older daughter?”
Valeria cupped the teacup in her hands and nodded.
“…He wasn’t a bad person. Rather, it felt like he was paying attention to each and every student. Just like Ayla said, he knew what the students liked.”
“I see...”
The priestess’s expression softened a little.
Fortunately, this Shun person didn’t seem to be the villain she’d imagined.
Then Ayla said, eyes sparkling,
“Ah! And Mom, I learned a lot today!”
“Learned what?”
“Insulin and IV fluids... uh... that...”
Ayla’s eyes turned toward the ceiling.
She wore the expression of someone trying very hard to remember something.
“Wh-what was it again? Potassium? And glucose? If you use them together, they can protect the heart...”
“…What?”
The priestess’s eyes widened.
“And if you pre-treat with some kind of IV fluid before using insulin, it can reduce the side effects!”
“….”
The priestess lost her words for a moment.
What on earth did you teach a middle-schooler?
“That’s... something you learn in the healing studies department...”
“Right! That’s what Director said too! He said I didn’t need to know it!”
“….”
The priestess was baffled, yet at the same time felt a strange sense of relief.
At the very least, he didn’t seem like a strange person.
Someone who wanted to harm children wouldn’t go out of his way to teach them that sort of thing.
At the same time, she could glimpse Director Shun’s humanity.
‘Director Shun...’
A complicated feeling flashed by.
He wasn’t a bad person.
That was very good news for both the daughters and the priestess.
But it bothered her a little that the reason she ended up connected to him wasn’t a particularly good one.
‘As long as I stay quiet, that’s all I need to do.’
In the healing field, Director Shun was now a heavyweight, comparable to a high priest or cardinal.
Even the capital’s treatment center director would have to bow to Director Shun.
In military terms, it was like an ordinary soldier having gotten on the knight commander’s radar.
Thinking that way, her stomach ached, separate from the fact that Director Shun might not be a bad person.
In the end, the priestess resolved to stop by an alchemy workshop on her way to work tomorrow morning and buy a stomach-protection potion.
While the priestess was thinking that, Ayla spoke again.
“Mom.”
“Yes?”
“I really want to become a healer like Director Shun.”
At those words, the priestess’s hand froze.
“…Really?”
“Yeah! I’ll study hard too, and later I’ll help lots of people like Director Shun.”
The priestess looked at her daughter’s face for a moment.
It was a bright, innocent face that still didn’t know the cold reality.
First of all, becoming a healer wasn’t as simple as just graduating from seminary.
Because a priest who graduates from seminary is just an ordinary priest, not a healer.
To become a healer, in addition to graduating from seminary, one must awaken divine power.
And this awakening of divine power is not something bloodline or effort can control.
It is a realm that depends solely on luck.
‘I was only able to become a healing priest because I awakened late too.’
Moreover, even if you awaken divine power, not everyone can become a healer.
Like mages, the knowledge side is also necessary.
There was a reason low-ranking healers were treated like master artisans.
‘And even those healers fall short of Director Shun...’
And those carefully filtered healers still couldn’t compare to Director Shun.
Not knowing any of that,
Ayla was simply saying she’d become Director Shun.
Seeing that face, a bitter smile spread across her lips.
“…Yeah.”
The priestess stroked her daughter’s head.
“Ayla can absolutely do it.”
Ayla was still only a 14-year-old child.
Wasn’t she still at an age where she was allowed to dream?
Thinking that, the priestess wiped the seasoning from Ayla’s mouth.
*
Meanwhile.
At that time, Julian was inside the limousine on the way back to the mansion.
Clatter, clatter.
Every time the car swayed, red hair swished across his lap.
“Heh-heh.”
It was Erica.
The escort was asleep with her head in the lap of the person she was supposed to protect.
She was even snoring contentedly.
Since it wasn’t the first time, Julian snickered and opened his notebook.
‘I’ve got a lot to memorize...’
He intended to sort out notes on the students he’d met today, as far as he could remember.
The fountain pen scratched over the paper.
=====================
Karl
Swordsmanship Department.
Personality:
Hot-blooded.
Seems like he’ll be the centerpiece of this batch.
A young man who looks like he’d shout that the bento you packed was delicious.
Seems to have a crush on Ellie from the Alchemy Department.
Potential: medium
——————————————
Ellie
Alchemy Department
Personality:
A glasses-wearing loner.
Has the habit of fiddling with her glasses.
Curious about her mentor.
Potential: medium-high
——————————————
Bear (name forgotten)
Military Department
Personality:
A warrior to the bone. General material.
Potential: medium-low
=====================
Julian paused the pen briefly.
All that remained was the sisters.
====================
Valeria
Diplomacy and Economics Department
Personality:???
Potential:???
====================
Honestly, he wasn’t sure about this girl.
She had been quiet throughout the meal.
Whether she was introverted, calculating, or just nervous, he couldn’t tell.
He’d need to observe more next time.
‘From her looks alone, she somehow seemed like she’d fit the discipline committee... no, I’m not a physiognomist.’
He’d even considered guessing personality from appearance according to web novel conventions.
By that convention, the girl named Valeria gave off a somewhat intense impression.
But such guesses could easily create prejudice for no reason.
In the end, Julian left Valeria’s slot blank.
And last.
===============
Ayla
Seminary Middle School Division
Personality:
Naturally clueless
Potential:…
===============
Julian’s pen paused briefly.
Because he remembered the note about Ayla’s special trait.
— Takes very good care of flowers.
Before the meal, Julian remembered that and asked Ayla about it during the meal.
— “I heard you like growing flowers, Ayla student.”
— “Yes! I like growing flowers! Later, when I become a healer like Mom, I’ll grow herbs myself too!”
In the process, she mentioned that her mother was a doctor, which briefly caused the students to misunderstand that the two sisters might be rich girls.
In any case, Ayla had said this back then:
— “I’m growing sunflowers right now too!”
‘Sunflowers...’
Julian’s eyes narrowed as he thought of it.
Sunflowers.
Flowers that love sunlight.
No, flowers that absolutely cannot grow without sunlight.
But what kind of world was this?
A world where sunlight was blocked by magi smog.
In the city within the walls, it’s hard to see a clear sky.
Especially in middle-class districts like Civitas Square.
Sunflowers were flowers with extremely high ornamental value even in Sanctum Hill.
And the upkeep cost goes without saying.
‘Sunflowers in a place like that?’
Obviously, a child whose family finances were only at the level of needing a scholarship couldn’t have raised them with money alone.
In other words, this meant Ayla had something going on.
Julian fell into thought for a moment.
If Ayla really had grown sunflowers...
And without sunlight at that...
‘...Maybe.’
The corners of Julian’s lips slowly rose.
The fountain pen moved again.
==============
Ayla
Seminary
+ aiming for the Healing Department.
Personality:
Naturally clueless.
+ at least a healing priest
+ potential romance-fantasy heroine. Or saint.
Potential: top-tier
Remarks: close protection and a buy-low strategy seem necessary
===============
‘Hmm...’
Julian bit the pen and thought.
Seriously, maybe next time he should have them tour a factory instead of sharing a meal.