11. Epic Monika + Live Or Die

-x-

Agonizing minutes passed.

"So it turns out you're not going to die just yet…" I said to butler Reim. I took away my numbed fingers and stepped back.

"GRAMPS!" the little girl threw herself at him and cried tears of relief. "Are you well now, Grampy Reim?! I'm sorry! I'm so sorry! It's my fault!"

"Huh now, dear child…" the old butler began stroking her back. "No one blames you. Let's all just be thankful we survived."

"That's right!" one of the guards shouted. He knelt down and slapped his palms on the ground, bowing completely. "That was an amazing feat of healing, good sir! You saved our lives! Amazing in both fighting and after fighting – it's a miracle we met you today! If… if you didn't come along…!"

All the remaining guards also bowed. All three of them. "We thank you for our lives and saving our young Lady!"

I let out a heavy breath and dropped back, sitting on my butt on the ground. Even with so much magic power, that really didn't do anything for the whole stress of combat and then the mental pressure of performing emergency care.

I shifted my position to be able to lean on my knees and breathed heavily. My joints were like rusted hinges. I could hear them creak.

Killing was so much easier than saving lives.

And yet…

And yet, this felt good. Much greater than the rush of battle. A greater sense of accomplishment than just being a hero. No, a hero must be someone who saves lives…! A mere monster-slayer was nothing more than random murderhobo.

"Thank you – thank you so much!" the little girl said fervently.

"Indeed, good sir, how we can we ever begin to repay you? You... are adventurers, are you not?" Reim said weakly.

I nodded. "Don't thank me yet. You're not actually healed. You're just stabilized. That won't last. And yes, we are adventurers – we had a delivery to make to the capital, it's just pure dumb luck we were on the road at near the same time."

"We're just sorry we couldn't do more…" said Linze.

Linze looked a little hollow-eyed. Oops. I had just sent her out to check dead bodies to find out who could still be saved. Maybe she even watched someone breathe his last.

Lizardmen were taller and stronger than humans. Their spear stabs were invariably fatal. And having looked at their arrows, they had narrow x-shaped heads to maximize tearing while still being able to decently go through padded armor.

Elze and Yae sat nearby, but keeping a watch out just in case.

"You saved our lives!" Maldon insisted. "All of us would have died, and who know what they'd have done to Young Lady Ortlinde! You've already healed us up, please rest, we'll handle the remains."

The… remains. The dead bodies of those that were their comrades. Suchie shivered and clung to her old caretaker's side as the guards dragged away the corpses. But she refused to look away. She burned the sight into her mind even as the guards began to dig and one by one laid the corpses into the grave.

One by one all the people dead because she was a noble's daughter.

She looked up towards Reim, one more person that could have die due to her own foolishness. Just because she was a noble's daughter was no excuse to think that she knew better.

"Apologies for the belated introduction," the old man said slowly. "We do not even know the names of our saviors, so please allow me to introduce ourselves first as dictated by courtesy. I am Reim, a servant to the noble Ortlinde household. The young miss is the duke's daughter, Sushie Ernea Ortlinde."

The little girl stood up and curtsied. "I really am Sushie Ernea Ortlinde! It's a pleasure to make your acquaintance! You may call me Sue!"

"Thank you, sir!" Sue faced towards me and expressed her gratitude again, standing with her feet apart, her fingers opened wide, and a beaming smile on her face. "Thank you, everyone!" She began spinning around. "T-thank you too, mysterious voice!"

"Wa… wa… what is this… utterly adorable creature?!" Monika gasped out. "I'm taking her home with meeeee!"

She lunged towards Sue to hug her, but of course her virtual persona just passed through.

"Dang."

I twitched and strongly clamped on my right hand with my left. The urge to pat her head was strong.

And behind the girl, her butler nodded sagely. Young mistress was truly formidable, yes. Her grandparents stood no chance.

"I guess then it's our turn. I am Zah Playa Von Chara, and these here are my friends – Elze and Linze Silhoueska, and Yae Kokonoe from Eashen, and… " I turned around to gesture at them, and then saw that they were stiffly kneeling down on one knee. "… what are you doing?"

"… didn't you hear?!" Elze whispered harshly. "She's a duke's daughter! A duke!"

"… and? Sorry, I'm not getting it. Is the rank of duke here different from what I know?"

"… D-duke is… it is the highest social rank that can be bestowed," Linze hurriedly informed me, while keeping her head pointed down. "Unlike the- the other titles, Duke is usually only given to members on the royal family..."

"Ah. I see." I turned to Sue. "So… you?"

"Yes indeed! My father is Duke Alfred Ernea Ortlinde, younger brother of His Majesty the King!"

"I see," I hummed. "That… explains things. This ambush is a pretty serious thing."

A little of the light faded from her eyes from my reminder. "T… that's right. This all happened because of me…"

I finally gave in and patted the top of her big round pillow-shaped hat. "It's going to be okay. Don't think it's your fault, it's the fault of those people who want to use you to make your father or the king obey their demands. Just surviving is foiling their plot!"

"… as Playa-dono said, survival is victory in itself, that is so!" Yae murmured. "To be always mindful of these things… it is the mark of someone used to the drastic affairs of those in high station, is it not?"

Elze looked up, and raised an eyebrow at me. "… huh, that really doesn't scare you at all, does it? I guess I should have expected this sort of thing from Playa."

I turned back to the butler. "So, um, should I kneel too? Is that how this works?"

Reim rapidly shook his head. "Oh no, no no no, we wouldn't dare to be so impolite to our saviors."

"Don't do that!" Sue pouted. "Please, everyone just stand up! I should be the one bowing to all of you!"

"Don't! Mister Zah should never kneel again to anyone! Not until…!"

All our eyes turned to Linze. She eeped and looked away. "… Miss Monika said that he… no, this is not the time." Linze shook her head and bowed to hide her face. "She said that to me to remind Mister Zah of where he came from, and not to let anyone take advantage of him when he does things in order to deny his past."

"I surely have no idea what you mean by that," I commented in fully honesty.

"You had to know there would be consequences for all that rolling. Fufufufu… a man like you only really needs to kneel once in his life. I'll make sure of that."

"Um… excuse me," Sue ventured softly. "But… Miss Monika? Is she that mysterious voice…?"

"Yes, I am Monika," Monika responded. Then she coughed and said "Wait, let me try this again…"

Privately she began to stack "[Amplify: Vibration.] [Amplify: Resonance] [Amplify: Surround Sound] [Compile: Open Air Sound System]"

Then she spoke in a booming, epic voice "I AM INDEED MONIKA. CHILD OF SALVATION. TAMER OF THE WORLD SERPENT,"

Well that's a fancy way of saying you were created by Dan Salvato and knew how to program in Python.

"READER OF OMENS. KEEPER OF WORLDS WITHIN WORLDS WITHIN GLASS.

EYES OF THE LAST SON OF ZEON!

I GREET THEE, SUSHIE ERNEA ORTLINDE.

BE CUTE AND ADORABLE FOREVER!" she finished off with an eager squeal.

… Monika, why do you torpedo yourself? I wondered if she was latching on to a Natsuki surrogate.

Sorry, but I will fight you on this – this totally adorbs little sisteru will not be a tsundere! She would be sweet and candid forever! We don't need gap moe when we have real moe!

Wait, what was that about Zeon?!

"Um! A p-pleasure to meet you too, Lady Monika!" Sue curtsied again.

"Yes! We are ever so grateful that you have deigned to assist us!" Reim added nervously.

Their eyeballs were tracking around nowhere in particular. We really needed to get Monika some sort of physical avatar people could interact with, this secrecy thing had finally played out.

"… yeah. All right. So that's Monika. Don't be too impressed with her either. She's with me, and we're all just regular adventurers in the end."

Elze got up and stretched out. "Are we done? Because if we are, I've got important things to do."

I happily pointed towards her. "See? Look at Elze! Elze doesn't care."

"That is true. If Playa doesn't care about it, then I'm not going to spend any effort whatsoever making a fuss over it," she replied while heading over to our wagon. "Tire me out for no point, hmf! It's lunchtime and I'm getting hungry!"

"… p-please forgive my sister for being a coarse woman," Linze begged Sue. "It's not like she doesn't respect the fallen…"

Sue shook her head. "No, it's fine. I mean… we can't help it. We're all tired. So we really should stop and rest."

"I must disagree, I do."

I turned to Yae. "Why?"

"Staying here for too long risks being caught up in another ambush. Such an ambush should competently be done with at least two people… one to fight, the other to observe and flee to report in case of failure. I have seen this before, this I have."

"That… is true. On the other hand, Monika has supreme awareness of the battlespace within half a mile of us. That's how we learned someone was being attacked well before they were in sight, after all. Monika?"

"I've extended my range to a full two miles, Player. I'm losing valuable resolution, but I can detect all living things within this range. There are no other humans nearby. I'll be able to detect hostile intent well before they enter range."

Reim's brows raised. "That is, indeed, a powerful ability! Though… it should be expected from a spirit, I suppose. I'm afraid we must trouble you to protect us for a while longer, we can provide you with more than respectable remuneration once we reach the capital."

"Thank you, Lady Monika!" Sue said again.

"Happy to help, my dear!" Monika replied. "But there's really more that needs to be done."

-x-

Since Reim was still injured, we had to force the old butler to just sit while we washed up and prepared food. Some sort of soft sausage-based stew, so that we could get some essential salts back into his body and not aggravate his wounds from chewing and swallowing.

The guards somberly took their portions and ate a short distance away.

"Mister Reim… how are you feeling?" asked Linze after the meal.

"… I'm starting to feel all that pain," the butler hissed through grit teeth. "But you're right, I shouldn't give up too easily. Lady Sushie still needs me."

"I do! I really do!" the girl cried.

I rubbed at my chin and stared off at the distance. "Mmm. How far are we from the capital?"

"Mayhaps two days… more one day and a half if we moved fast, but…"

I nodded. "Then… you're not safe. Your wound can still get infected and then you get a fever and you die. We can't move fast or that would bump and cause the wound to bleed out even more, which means it will take longer to get there. Which leads back to the whole inflamed wound causing flesh to rot and poison the blood."

"The problem with convenient healing magic and magic potions is that they might not have yet developed the idea of antibiotics."

"No! That can't happen!" the little girl squeaked.

"Mister Zah, don't be scary," Linze chided me, crossing her arms over her chest. "It doesn't happen that quickly, but it is true that rot is very dangerous."

I nodded. "We still have the same options as before. I really can't guarantee more than six hours without serious problems from the wound.

"The first is to [Heal] over and seal the wound, but once we arrive at the capital the doctors there will have to cut open your chest again and dig out the arrow. This is the simplest and safest however – it will hurt, and traveling will cause it to cut and bleed internally a bit, but you won't die inside of two days."

"I can endure," Reim replied.

"The other option is to do some field surgery. We didn't do this before because we didn't have the proper tools, but now that you're stabilized we can look around to see what we can use. Some sort of tweezers or pieces of metal we can twist into shape. We can beat out some strips of armor for that. Whatever it takes, really.

"And then once the arrow is out, [Heal!]. It's risky… but not as risky as before when the wound was still fresh and pumping blood."

The old man looked down at his chest. "If we do that, we would be able to travel faster to bring the young miss back to safety…"

"No, it's not worth it just for that!" she protested weakly. "It's not, for me!"

"Do you doubt Sir Playa's skill?" he asked her in return.

"… no." She shyly looked up at me. "Light magic… healing… it's not so useless as I thought."

Eh? Light magic, healing magic in particular, is awesome. Why would she ever think that?

Reim turned to me again. "If you believe this is the best cause of action, then I give my consent."

"Linze, what do you think?

She blinked. "Eh? Ehh? Why are you asking me?!"

I raised my hand. "Hands up, all those here who can use Light magic."

Linze followed. Then, hesitantly, so did Sue.

"So that means I'm going to need your help for this operation," I bowed apologetically at Sue, "Sorry, but… if you allow this, it's going to be a bit… gruesome."

"But it will save Grampy Reim's life, right?! He won't die from this?"

"Just how confident are you about playing surgeon, Player? What's your motivation for doing this?"

"… I can feel it. It will work. I've been able to regrow limbs, bone and tissue and all. Granted, for mice, and Linze looked like she was ready to murder me in sympathy from mutilating all those cute test mice even if they were unconscious…"

"It… it just didn't seem fair…" the girl mumbled. "But I know it was necessary. Even I had to train my Light magic on something."

"Then some time later I asked Micah to introduce me to a butcher. I've managed to regrow whole organs – missing lungs, removed hearts, large open wounds closed up. Heck, I even managed to reattach a chicken's head!" I said with far more excitement than what was warranted. "It was at that point the butcher threw me out and told me never to come back with my unnatural cravings."

"He looked really disturbed when Player cut off a chicken leg, regrew it, then declared this was [UNLIMITED DRUMSTICK WORKS!]" Monika helpfully announced.

"But it would work! Infinite meat for crispy chicken legs! Chickenjoy my gift to the world!"

"… why are you so weird, Playa?" Elze sighed. "You… you were thinking about how to make money from that again, didn't you?"

"Well, yes. I have magic power to spare. If I just needed to buy one chicken, like, forever, that is a huge amount of overhead I could cut from my fast food franchise."

Then recognizing that Sue and Reim were looking at me oddly, their confidence in my medical skills fading quickly, I added, "But more seriously, bone and tissue are much more complicated than they first appear. A healing spell that can regrow bones and organs from nothing has a lot of intelligent self-correction going for it, if spells could be said to have intelligent design.

"My theory is that it is automatic, it reverses damage. Perhaps it manifests the being's soul image back into reality," and quite possibly it explained how Monika and I could be alive again in this isekai world after we both died, "and as such as long as I could cast it quickly enough, it is as foolproof as it can be!"

"Could you teach me that spell?" Sue asked.

"It's just… Come forth, Light! Soothing Comfort: [Cure Heal]." A glowing mist of directionless magic flared from my fingertips. I made sure it was aimed nowhere close to Reim.

"I… I've heard of this spell before. It's… it's not as powerful as you make it sound at all. It didn't help my mother when she was sick. And… and now, it can't even fix what's wrong with her."

Linze nodded. "I know this spell too. I really don't think it does as much as you think it does."

I nodded. "I was afraid of that, but I do think there's a reason for that. This sort of magic might be foolproof, but I think it's actually somewhat kinda dumb as much as it's so smart about rebuilding damage. I actually don't think it can deal with illnesses all that well because A LOT of the pain and trauma from illness is the body itself going overboard trying to fight off the infection.

That's why you get a fever when you're sick. Your body is trying to burn it out. You cough and your nose gets all runny, it's your body trying to spit it out. When someone feels cold, that's because blood is warm and that means less blood is near the skin."

I held out my arm and traced from armpit to wrist. "If you know what's going on inside the body, you can order it to direct its efforts at fixing itself more efficiently. Frankly given how [Heal] is so convenient, I'd have thought your doctors would be very familiar with anatomy through experimental vivisection."

"Vivisection?"

"Cutting open live subjects, as opposed to dissection, the cutting open of corpses."

"Scary! That's too scary, Mister Zah!" Linze yelped.

Sue put her hands over her mouth and tried not to gag.

I sighed. "I do hope they didn't actually do that. But in seriousness, medicine is not pretty. It's a lot of disgusting and horrible, and it's where you meet the worst in people… but a doctor must have a strong stomach in order to give confidence to their patients, and the nerve to save their lives no matter what."

Sue sat on her knees, balled fists on her lap, and looked studious and attentive. "If you want to save people, you can't be scared or disgusted by the icky things you see in them! I understand."

"Young miss…"

"Grampy Reim, I won't decide for you! You decide what happens, it's your body after all."

The old butler sighed and stared at each of us with narrow, considering eyes. "In that case, I decide…"

-x-

Yes, this story is on webnovel too. I put that there instead of someone else copying it. At least this way I have control over the content.

It's getting better reception over there. Here it's just 5k views so far, while there it's already 60k. The daily updates with shorter chapters may be helping. Due to the inability to schedule updates, I'm not really very enthused to keep updating on FF net except in the big full chapter chunks like I used to do.