Chapter 215Chapter 215: End-of-term exam (4)

The wind that blew into the tent turned the page of the book.

Edmund let the wind turn his page.

It wasn't a book he had opened with any intention of cultivating refinement, anyway.

He was merely pretending to read because there were eyes around him.

Edmund had begun being drenched in demonic beasts' blood before the blood on his head had even dried.

Those around him knew his hobby as reading, but.

In truth, it was closer to a safe excuse to keep anyone from speaking to him.

And in practice, this excuse was effective.

Because the instructors who had been flattering him to get on his good side since the exam began were now leaving him alone.

“Your Highness!”

But the moment the tent entrance was thrown roughly open, the prince's peaceful reading time came to an end.

Feeling regret at that, Edmund checked who was so urgently looking for him.

The visitor was none other than Ayla.

“The Saintess of the Lamp. What is it?”

“Teacher told me to bring Your Highness!”

Edmund's gaze rested on her face.

There were plenty of people in the treatment zone to send on errands.

Yet Yulian had sent the Saintess herself.

There was no need to explain what that meant.

“Lead the way. Where should I go?”

“The Red Flag Area!”

Edmund rose immediately.

He followed Ayla to the area where Yulian was.

As they went, his steps gradually quickened, and before he knew it, he had overtaken Ayla.

“Saintess. Tell me again exactly what he said.”

“He said he would take the student under a Red Flag, and told me to bring Your Highness. There was nothing more.”

The prince felt a chill run down his spine.

Just what had happened, that he would omit the explanation and send the Saintess like this?

“Anything else? Was there really nothing else?”

“...He said someone had only five hours left.”

Edmund closed his mouth.

The five hours the Saint had declared.

They carried a different weight from the five hours another Healer might declare.

Even on the day his wife's life had hung in the balance on the operating table,

and when he had seen the Erunt Ducal Family's beheaded son-in-law.

Yulian had never once spoken of a limited time left.

And that man had declared five hours.

'The situation is taking a turn for the worse.'

Something.

He could think only that something had truly gone wrong.

While he was thinking, the prince drew near the Red Flag Area.

When he stood before the curtain dividing the area's boundary, he heard sobbing from the other side.

“Hic... hic...”

The prince carefully lifted the curtain.

“Don't cry, you punk. Are you going to blubber to the very end?”

“I'll tell your mother you were brave to the end. I promise.”

“I'll be sure to keep your sword safe. I'll polish it every day so the blade doesn't dull at all.”

“...And to her?”

“You should have said that sooner, you idiot!”

“Ngh...”

Four students surrounded a single bed.

The face of the student lying there was a mess of tears and snot.

His comrades were each holding his hands and arms.

One had already taken out paper and pen.

It seemed he was prepared to write down his last words.

Edmund's gaze moved to the next bed.

“What should we carve on the gravestone?”

“I'll write that he was always bravely at the front.”

“I was an archer... Doesn't that make me dead weight?”

“Then were you at the back the whole time?”

“That makes me sound like a coward.”

“Are you asking me to play along?”

The next bed too. And the bed next to that.

People crowded around every bed in the tent.

The sounds coming from one bed were not much different from another.

It truly deserved to be called a house of mourning.

Standing in the doorway, Edmund scanned the lying students one by one.

“...Saintess.”

“Yes, Your Highness.”

“To my eyes, those children all look fine. Is this really such a serious matter?”

Their limbs were attached. No bandages were visible, either.

By Edmund's common sense, there was no student in this space who could be called injured.

“Please look at their palms, Your Highness.”

“Palms?”

Edmund looked again.

“...They're red. The scratch marks look severe, too.”

“The student Teacher first found was like that. The others... I think Teacher found them and classified them as Red Flag while I was going to bring Your Highness.”

Edmund swallowed dryly.

It was already serious enough that even one person had suddenly been given limited time.

With this many people, it was little short of a disaster.

“...Where is Lord Yulian?”

“He's over there, inside.”

Edmund held back his feet as they tried to head to the bedside.

If it had been one person, he would have taken their hand.

It was compassion he could naturally hold as one father and one human being.

But if a problem had occurred for this many people,

he had to be a soldier and a commander.

'Figuring out what happened comes first.'

After gesturing for the student who had noticed him and tried to rise to stay seated,

he headed to the innermost part of the tent, where Yulian was.

“Lord.”

“You've come, Your Highness.”

Yulian alone greeted him with a calm face in the middle of the house of mourning.

Though the prince felt puzzled by Yulian's attitude, he reflexively held out his hand.

“To my eyes, there seems to be nothing particularly wrong with those children. But you called me, so there must be a reason. What is their condition?”

Yulian grasped his hand.

“They were exposed to the venom of a poisonous moth caterpillar. The species is called Lonomia.”

“...”

The prince's hand, shaking Yulian's, stopped.

“Lono...mia?”

Edmund repeated the name again.

It was a name he had never heard before.

He had spent a long time in the Southern Front, but he did not know every insect.

But even if the name was unfamiliar, there was one thing he knew from experience.

“I don't know the exact species. But one thing I am certain of. When I recaptured this fortress, there were no poisonous moth caterpillar-type demonic beasts in this area.”

If there had been, I could not have failed to remember.

Normally, an operation begins with first determining the types of demonic beasts.

There was no reason Edmund, who had been commander-in-chief of the Southern Recapture Operation, would not remember.

Therefore, Edmund confirmed with Yulian once more.

“Is it truly a poisonous moth caterpillar?”

“Yes.”

“Hoo...”

Edmund let out a short breath.

“...A poisonous moth caterpillar. It was enough for you to call me.”

When Edmund muttered that, Ayla and Lauren exchanged glances.

A wordless conversation passed between them.

— Is a caterpillar really such a serious problem?

— Ayla, if you don't know, how would I?

The two looked at Edmund again.

Edmund guessed their doubts from the atmosphere.

But he did not explain to them.

“It is not that I doubt your skill, Lord.”

He said, carefully choosing his words.

“But if that is true, it is no light matter. At a single word from you, I may have to move the hundreds of people who joined this practical training. So I must hear it. What did you see that led you to that conclusion?”

Believing and verifying were separate matters.

In a position holding hundreds of lives, the report of the person he trusted most had to be questioned one more time.

However, the prince was cautious lest Yulian feel hurt by his attitude.

Fortunately, Yulian nodded without a trace of displeasure.

“It is basic deduction.”

Then he walked to the nearest bed.

The party writing down last words hurriedly cleared the way.

Yulian took the crying student's wrist and turned his palm toward Edmund.

“This student first suspected poison ivy. He said he had a poison ivy allergy. The fact that he thought of poison ivy also means he touched tree bark in the forest.”

A finger touched the red palm.

Ayla admired the explanation.

A small difference in nuance.

Yulian was drawing clues from that difference.

“And the student had a bruise on his ankle and bleeding from his gums. This suggests a problem with blood coagulation.”

Yulian reached toward the table, picked up a glass tube, and tilted it.

The blood inside flowed down the glass wall like water.

“This is blood drawn from these students an hour ago. It still hasn't clotted. At this point, it is enough to be confident it is due to a hemorrhagic toxin.”

Ayla nodded.

Up to here, she could understand it as 'basic' in its own way.

Edmund was convinced as well.

This much was within the range any Healer could sufficiently observe.

But,

“It means a local reaction overlapped with a hemorrhagic disorder. Plant poisons showing this pattern are extremely rare. That would make it animal-based. The problem is that while this kind of animal hemorrhagic toxin is common in vipers, it is unlikely the students would not have noticed being bitten.”

As the deduction continued, they had no choice but to revise their thinking.

“Then the candidate is a creature that lives in trees, has camouflage excellent enough that students would not notice it, and possesses venom capable of causing bleeding this severe. That narrows it to one candidate.”

A single small clue can be found by chance.

Connecting those clues in some way is also possible with effort.

But turning clues that trivial into a meaningful result was extremely difficult.

As a lightning-type Mage with some knowledge of physics, Edmund knew well how difficult that was.

“Therefore, there is only one conclusion. Lonomia. The students are poisoned by this insect's hemorrhagic toxin.”

The tent fell silent.

The student writing down the last words froze with pen in hand, and the student lying down was still staring at the bruise on his ankle.

It was Lauren who broke the silence.

“I say again, I am not doubting the Lord Saint's discernment.”

He stepped forward.

“But is it not too early to make a diagnosis on that much evidence alone? You have neither extracted the venom to confirm it, nor seen the caterpillar yourself.”

It was a reasonable question.

Ayla and Edmund had not been able to ask that far.

Because Yulian's explanation alone had already convinced them enough.

Yulian turned toward Lauren.

“With infection or poisoning, we often infer from the clinical presentation starting with the most likely cause.”

“Without even verifying?”

“We do verify. After starting treatment. Waiting until culture results come back or the cause is definitively identified is often too late.”

Lauren closed his mouth.

The Black Saint, having silenced the Saint of Radiance at once, turned back toward Edmund.

“In that sense, Your Highness, please send all students with these symptoms here.”

Edmund did not answer immediately.

He stroked his chin and fell into thought for a moment.

“Poisonous moth caterpillars... came out to the edge of the forest...”

The mutter escaped on its own.

The practical training area was at the edge of the forest.

The strong ones in the depths were periodically thinned out by the Erunt Ducal Family.

That was why this place had been chosen.

If poisonous moths had come down to such a place, it meant one of two things.

They had been pushed out in a fight for food deeper in the forest.

Or a single one that wandered over had reproduced and increased their numbers.

Either way, it was not a good sign.

“That venom is troublesome for students to handle... and I don't even know how many have already been identified... the retrieval teams are still scattered in the forest...”

The muttering continued for a while.

Soon he reached a conclusion.

“We must stop the exam.”

Yulian's eyebrow twitched.

No one noticed that subtle change, however.

Ayla, watching from behind, cautiously opened her mouth.

“Um, Your Highness. It's a caterpillar, not even a viper. Is there a reason to be that wary?”

Lauren nodded.

He held the same doubt as Ayla.

Edmund looked back at the two.

A question followed: could a Healer not know why this poison was lethal?

But that doubt quickly vanished.

The two spent most of their time in the infirmary.

Even if they knew better than anyone what poison meant in the infirmary,

in the forest, they likely knew less about what poison meant than even new recruits.

Edmund relaxed the corner of his mouth slightly.

He raised one gloved finger.

“Saintess. What do you think is the most frightening demonic beast in the South?”

“Uh... big ones with strong poison?”

“No. Those are rather easy.”

Edmund shook his head.

“Let me change the question. What would you do if a viper lunged at you?”

While Ayla was choosing an answer,

Edmund continued.

“I would burn it with lightning. No matter how fast a viper is, it cannot be faster than lightning. Same for hornets.”

A blue spark crackled from his fingertip.

Ayla flinched.

“But when should this be used to burn them?”

Ayla, also looking at the hand where the lightning had briefly lingered, said,

“...You'd have to find it before touching it.”

“Exactly. In the South, the ones that openly look dangerous are easier to deal with. They usually stay at Rank 1 or Rank 2. When Rank rises, it is not just strength that increases.”

Edmund pointed outside the tent with a finger.

“Vipers camouflage themselves, hornets dig into the ground and hide. Spiders hang bait webs in plain sight and wait for prey that comes avoiding them.”

When an opponent they cannot beat appears, they hide.

If hiding is not enough, they even eliminate the reason for the opponent to look for them.

“By that standard, poisonous moth caterpillars are especially nasty. Their average Rank is 3. And yet they never fight head-on.”

Edmund tapped the tent pole with his palm.

“Like this.”

Ayla's gaze went to the hand on the pole.

“The place you touch thinking it's tree bark is their back. They hide, then sting without warning. Fully grown moths fly silently and scatter poison powder.”

He removed his hand from the pole.

“Now do you understand why poisonous moth caterpillar-type demonic beasts are such a headache?”

Ayla and Lauren nodded.

Only then could they realize why the South's demonic beasts were feared.

Stealth and cunning.

Those were the weapons of the South's demonic beasts.

After checking the reactions of the Saint and Saintess, Edmund returned to the problem facing him.

'I've been had again.'

That was the problem with the South.

The fight is over before you even know it has begun.

A soldier's squad that carelessly stepped on a mushroom during a march does not rise from its barracks the next morning.

A soldier who reported a tingling in his throat convulses with his eyes rolled back the next day.

Edmund had faced such terrible mornings many times.

“Tsk.”

At the bitterness he had not felt in a long time, he clicked his tongue without realizing it.

“For now, I will cast healing magic on those children first. Stop the exam.”

Having said that, he walked to the tent entrance and lifted the curtain.

The Ducal Family's commander waiting outside immediately approached and saluted.

“You called, Your Highness.”

“Is there an antidote for a poisonous moth called Lonomia in the Ducal Family's supplies?”

The commander's face stiffened.

“...I apologize, Your Highness. It is not a name on the supply list. It is not a poison found in this region, so...”

The commander trailed off.

“And, Your Highness. Forgive me, but if you administer healing without neutralizing the poison, the divine power...”

“I know.”

Edmund cut him off.

He did not want to hear it.

Because he already knew.

All too well.

The frontline of eleven years ago.

An age without the word antibiotics, without the rule to wash wounds with boiled water, without vaccines to prevent plague in advance.

That era came back to him after a long time.

“Without an antidote, we cannot bear the rate of divine power consumption. Then we must quickly find a way to obtain an antidote. Call the instructors here. All of them.”

“Yes, Your Highness.”

The commander ran off.

Edmund returned inside the tent and knelt on one knee before the first bed he had seen.

The student hurriedly tried to rise. Edmund pressed his shoulder and laid him back down.

“You.”

“Yes, yes! Your Highness!”

“We do not know how many more children like you will appear in this forest.”

He did not mince words.

“Until we determine that, I cannot pour divine power into you. It means I cannot cast a Heal on you right now.”

The color drained from the student's face. The tears that had stopped welled up again.

“Th-then I...”

The comrade who had been writing down the last words threw down his pen and stepped forward.

“Your Highness! Could you use my divine power? It's only a little, but you may use all of it!”

“Mine too!”

“Use mine as well! Even if it's not enough, at least this much...!”

Hands rose even from the next bed.

The lying student stared blankly at those hands, then sniffled loudly.

“...Stop. You keep your share. If the sun sets, we might have to go back in again.”

“This bastard, at a time like this...”

“Instead, a letter...”

The student grabbed his comrade's sleeve with a trembling hand.

“Finish writing the letter. To my mother... tell her not to skip meals...”

“...Yeah. I'll write it. Dictate slowly.”

The comrade picked up the pen fallen on the floor.

Edmund straightened his knee and stood.

The fact that there was nothing he could do pressed heavily on his chest.

He quietly turned his back.

Edmund, having turned his back and headed outside.

The instructors he had summoned were waiting for him.

Looking bewildered.

“Your Highness...? Why are you stopping the exam?”

“There is no antidote. If we are to minimize casualties from now on, this is the best option.”

“No... that's the thing...”

The instructor cautiously opened his mouth.

“I received a report that Lord Saint... has already administered the antidote...?”

“?”

This time, it was Edmund who was flustered.

“Lord Saint administered the antidote?”

“Yes.”

He looked at Yulian with eyes demanding an explanation.

Yulian nodded.

“I already took measures. I intended to watch the situation and, once they improved, let the students out.”

“...Why did you not tell me there was an antidote? No. Why did you not first say you had already taken measures...? No...”

Edmund's head grew complicated.

What should he ask first?

There was a mountain of things he wanted to ask.

Then he thought of the question he should ask first.

“Lord.”

“Yes, Your Highness.”

“Was there a reason to go out of your way to give the children that explanation when you had already administered the antidote?”

Yulian was calm.

“Patients have the Right to Know.”

It was an answer without hesitation.

“A Doctor—no, a Healer—must convey the situation as fully and truthfully as possible for that sake.”

Yulian held his head high.

Edmund stared intently at Yulian.

“But did you really have to explain it that way?”

“Yes. I cannot let them receive treatment without knowing the danger.”

Edmund paused for a moment.

He did not know if it was wrong, but there was too much that the statement did not explain.

Then suddenly, a theory came to mind.

“Lord. I will ask one thing.”

“Ask.”

“If a casualty came in with an amputated arm and bleeding you could not control, what color would you classify them as?”

Yulian blinked once.

“I don't know why you suddenly ask that, but Red.”

“Not Black?”

“With surgery and a Minor Heal, they can be saved well enough.”

One instructor cleared his throat.

“Then what about a patient whose waist is bent in half?”

“It would be a little difficult, but with surgery and a Minor Heal, they can be saved. They could be classified as Red.”

Edmund's guess began to gradually turn into certainty.

“...A patient whose neck is hanging by a thread?”

This time, the answer was a little delayed.

Even Yulian was cautious with his answer this time.

Even if he was the protagonist, he could not easily guarantee it.

'If I do this and that...'

However, the simulation in his head did not take long.

'As long as I have divine magic, it should work?'

For him, who had come from a world without magic, time was always in short supply.

No matter how well he performed surgery, the patient's life force could not endure the recovery period.

But in this world, where divine magic existed, it was different.

The recovery period for fractures was shortened from months to a day,

and bleeding that could not be stopped no matter what was easily controlled.

In such a world, it seemed he could overcome the situation Edmund had presented.

Having finished thinking, Yulian answered as cautiously as possible.

“...If they arrived alive before me in that state, it would mean there is still time. It is worth trying using a Minor Heal.”

It was not 100 percent, but perhaps about 70 percent.

Yulian roughly estimated it at about that much.

Hearing the answer, Edmund nodded.

He became certain.

Why Yulian had spoken to the children that way.

And why he himself was so calm.

The reason was simple.

The line that man called 'death' was drawn far away from where ordinary people stood.

A soldier with an amputated arm was Red.

A soldier with a folded waist was also Red.

Even a soldier whose neck was hanging by a thread was worth trying.

To such a person, what was a poisonous moth caterpillar's venom?

'So that's why he explains it like that.'

His way of viewing the worst-case possibility was different.

To others, it was a story serious enough to shock them and make them put their lives in order,

but to Yulian, it was a minor happening that merely needed to be handled well.

That was why he could lightly speak of a situation that would make others recoil, as if saying, 'This kind of thing can happen~'

As Edmund organized his thoughts, his gaze happened to land on Ayla.

The Saintess of the Lamp was hugging the dressing set and staring blankly into space.

Her lips moved.

“Ah, so that's why Brother Kal...”

Kal.

Edmund remembered that name as well.

The scholarship student who had raised his hand the moment the instructor's safety rules speech ended before the practical training.

When asked if there were questions, that student had asked with a serious face.

—How far may I be injured?

Not how far he must not be injured. How far he was allowed to be injured.

Edmund inwardly agreed with Ayla's muttering.

'No wonder I wondered where he learned to speak like that...'

His gaze returned to Yulian.

It was not simply a matter of blaming that student, Kal.

Because the cause was over there.

'...If by any chance Aster and Stelle learn from Yulian, it would be better after giving them common sense education first.'

That day.

Edmund quietly revised his children's education plan in his mind.