This is True Teamwork

-o

/"I really can't believe we're going through with this. But I do admit this is a nobler reason to have this much power…"/

"Reim is the braver person, after all we're risking nothing."

/"How about making Sue sad? Is that worth the risk? I'd have thought enduring the pain for an arrow stuck shut inside the body and requiring even more surgery would have been safest and required the least amount of effort./

Her voice seemed to come from the left side now. /"Butler Reim, your dedication to duty and her safety is extreme."/

"Lady Monika… it is the least I could do. We must get off this road and get milady to safety as soon as possible."

"I think the bigger question is why Sushie is letting us do this." I looked up at met the girl's eyes. She was still sitting seiza-style on her knees, for some reason imitating Yae's dutiful posture. She blinked and forced herself to meet my blank gaze. "Why, Sue?" I asked.

Her lips dipped down into a frown before forced back to a false smile. "I don't want Grampy Reim to be in any more pain. Knowing he's going back home with a piece of metal right next to his heart… it's scary." She clenched her fists. "What if he just falls…? And then… and then! How can we help then?!

She bared her teeth and added desperately, "We can't be sure of what will happen in two days!"

Reim laughed weakly. "That sort of… far-sighted thinking. I'm really happy that you've begun to realize the worth of preparing for the future.

"Sometimes… you need to take a bigger risk now than allow something worse you have no control over, to happen later. These are the worries that your father… even His Majesty the King, must consider." He wheezed again, trying to keep himself from smiling too much, "You… are becoming strong, dear child."

"No! I don't… if being strong means losing you, I don't want it! But, I hope… I really hope this works!"

Again she stared at me fitfully. "Promise me! If you don't… I'll never forgive you!"

/"Ahhh… that's really not something that can be promised,"/ Monika noted. /"The most a doctor can do is to mitigate risks. There's always something unpredictable even in routine operations."/

"Sure, I guarantee it. I stake my life on it."

/"Player!"/

-o

-o

So. Field surgery.

We needed to prepare and sanitize an operating area, but there's only so much that could be done outdoors. We had no tables, but we could at least set up a tent around us to stop the wind.

Next there was the problem of tools. We found a fruit knife that, when sufficiently sharpened, could serve as a makeshift scalpel. To make forceps, Elze peeled off broken pieces of armor with her [Boosted] strength, much to the surprise of the guards, and beat it into shape of something like tweezers.

We needed to cut it to shape, and for that we used a short sword as an improvised metal chisel and stamper. We ended up with something that looked like oversized tweezers with an L-shaped end.

Then we needed medical gloves. We ended up having to sterilize and use some of Sue's silk gloves, even if they didn't quite fit.

We sat inside the tent, gauging how well we could move inside of it, with Sue lighting the place with a magic light ball in her hands.

"All right, here's how we're going to do it," I began to assign orders. Deep breath.

"Once we take off the pressure, we only have a limited time window. Sue. You're going to have to keep your light bright and steady, close to the wound but far enough that it won't interfere with people's hands…" I tapped the flashlight on my headset as the primary light. "We can't have shadows hiding what we need to see."

I pointed to the sharpened knife on a cloth strip, then to Yae. "Yae, you're our surgeon. You will need to widen the wound enough that we would be able to see and pull out the arrowhead."

"… are you certain of this? Can you really trust such a delicate procedure to one such as myself?!"

"Yes. Only you can do this. As a swordswoman, you have a feel for just how deep you can safely cut. I trust you."

She nodded somberly. "Then I shall do as you command, Playa-dono."

Then I pointed at Linze and towards a pair of L-shaped strips of metal. "Next is to force open the wound while staunching bleeding. This is where you, Linze, will have to work your nerve. You'll have to pull apart the flesh with your own hands."

I sighed sofly. "In many way, I'm forcing you to do the most difficult job – you need to decide for yourself how much pressure to put, how much you can open the wound, without breaking your tools."

"… I… I'll do my best!"

"And Elze, you have one job. Once the way is clear, reach in in, pinch the arrowhead and pull it out. As fast as you can. Don't worry about the damage, just get it out there FAST."

"What will you be doing?"

I held up my fingers. "I'll be keeping Mister Reim alive manually mixing air into his blood from his sucking chest wound. Then once the arrowhead is gone, make the final definitive [Heal]."

/"And my job is to keep Mister Reim all popped up on natural painkillers so he doesn't feel any of this,"/ Monika finished.

"… I have a question," asked the butler.

"Yes?"

"Will I be awake for all of this?"

"Considering we lack sedatives strong enough to knock you out, yes. Your own survival too is under your own control."

He nodded slowly and rubbed at his thick white mustache. "I must admit, that is somewhat… frightening. What should I do?"

There was not the slightest hint of fear in his eyes, however.

"All right. Once the arrow is removed, you are going to bleed out almost instantly. We're going to try and hit you with an overpowered [Heal] spell almost immediately afterwards.

"What is most important here is your WILL TO SURVIVE, do you understand? When that happens all that you need to think about is how you DON'T WANT TO DIE. Calm down, slow down your heart, so that your blood doesn't spurt out so quickly and you fall unconscious."

My hands were still pointed at his ribs and neck. "If you black out, you might never wake up again."

Reim nodded. "I understand." He looked towards Sushie and said "Please pray for me, dear child."

"I will!"

-o

-o

We Sing the Goodbye Music

-o

There was a trope known as the Unspoken Plan Guarantee. That is, a plan that was explained to the viewer or reader was almost always guaranteed to face some unexpected complication while that which was not explained would more or less go off without a hitch. This was due to the story conservation of detail, and repeating that which was already told to the reader would be uninteresting.

But in reality, the more you communicate, the more your team understands what they should be doing and their role in their operation, the much more likely is it to succeed. This works for things like medical operations to combat. That's why training is so valuable.

And that's why half-assed training could be more dangerous than useful.

We laid Reim down onto the bedrolls that the dead guards would certainly not be using anymore, piling them so he was at a semi-seating position.

I poked at his neck and Monika applied /"[Amplify: Endorphins]."/

The old man's lips twitched. As Yae and Elze unbound his chest, we could tell he was fighting not to giggle, as if strangely ticklish.

"Linze, prepare to apply side pressure to keep the wound shut."

Linze nodded and pinched at either side of the wound between the thumb and fingers of her left hand, adjusting to allow the cloth to be removed until she was only touching bare skin.

"Sue, Light."

"Yes!" the noble girl replied, bringing her hands closer and the light globe in her hands strongly illuminating the wound.

Yae shifted position to sit in front of Reim, almost straddling him and studying intently his bare chest. The old man blushed a little bit, and I softly slapped the back of his head with my other hand. There was no time for those thoughts or the elevated blood pressure. He giggled weakly.

"Linze, give Mister Reim here something to bite on. We are going to open the wound, and even with Monika drastically intensifying the body's natural painkillers, this might still hurt… a lot."

Linze jammed some rolled-up doilies into his mouth, him biting them sideways.

I sat opposite Yae, my right hand moving to poke at the butler's ribs again. Then with my left hand, I slid under Linze's pinching touch on Reim's chest. Elze had her hands on his shoulders.

And then, slowly, I increased the gap between my thumb and forefinger.

"Hrrrngh!" Reim hissed, and tried not to kick out with his feet. Elze applied pressure down on his shoulders to steady him.

"Grampy Reim!" Sue cried out.

"Mhf fghn! Comfhinnhuu!" I'm fine! Continue!

"Elze, daub!" I told her to wipe off the blood. She quickly, if gingerly, did so.

/"[Amplify: Endorphins],"/ Monika intensified the pain blocking neurotransmitters. /"[Diagnosis.]"/

My view switched again to a strange false-color heat map. /"Player, it's really lodged deep in there now. Yae, are you ready?"/

"I am, Monika-sama!"

/"All right. Mister Reim, please prepare yourself. Player? It's your call."/

"Yae, Linze, take the time to study the wound. Linze, note where you could spread open the wound while blocking channels for bleeding. I don't think it has hit any major blood vessels, and the wound may have clotted around the arrowhead."

"Y-yes. It's not as bleeding as badly as before," Linze replied. After dabbing away the first gush of blood, the bleeding had slowed down.

"Yae, cut vertically by your best judgement to expose the arrowhead."

"Hai." She took a deep breath and readied the fruit knife. She pressed the tip to the edge of the wound.

"Hhrrgh." Reim shut his eyes tight.

I began to apply "[Resuscitation!]" to his other lung to give him some other cool sensation to focus on.

Yae pushed down and made the first incision.

"Huuurrrgghh!" That was Sue, turning away and trying not to vomit. Suddenly the tent was full of the sickly-sweet smell of fresh blood.

"Stay strong!" I shouted at her. "Sue, light! We need you!"

"… I can't… I can't… I can't look away. For Grampy Reim!" she mumbled to herself, and turned back to the task.

Even as Yae cut deeper, first down, and then up. She looked terrified, but while her little hands shook they didn't inch away from Yae's moving fingers. Linze looked only slightly less nauseous, and shakily daubed away more of the bleeding.

"It is done," said Yae, moving back on her knees and tiptoes.

"Come, Water. Mild touch of frost, [Chill Touch!]" I applied pressure and a mild cooling to around my fingertips, hoping that would constrict the veins enough to reduce bleeding. "… Linze. Elze. Your turn."

Linze nodded firmly, and picked up the two metal bands to hold open the wound. Elze moved from behind Reim to in front of him. She picked up the metal tweezers and positioned them over the wound.

"Should I grab the arrowhead or by the shaft? Which will hurt less?"

/"The field manuals have nothing to say about this. Your call, Player."/

"Dig into the flesh if you have to. Pull it out clean. Don't slip."

Reim was sweating and starting to breath heavily with panic as he watched himself being cut open. That was causing his blood to start pumping again, overcoming the clotting.

"Stop, Mister Reim, relax! The pain's only going to get worse if you focus on it!" Then I turned back towards Elze. "Don't rush, judge well how you're going to remove that! Don't slip!"

"I can do this, don't worry! Just… steady. Steaddyy….!"

Elze pushed the metal tips into the wound. Reim hissed again.

Elze began to jiggle the forceps a little bit to force it in deeper. Sue whimpered.

Elze pushed one last time, clenched her fingers, and pulled!

Reim let out a guttural gasp. A sucking noise began to come out of the cavity in his chest.

Quickly I moved my hands away from his lungs, slapped one palm over the other over the wound and shouted, "COME FORTH, LIGHT! SOOTHING COMFORT! [CURE HEAL!]"

A blinding flash of light filled the tent.

-o

-o

The guards heard Sue screaming, and rushed to the operating tent.

But before they could enter, Reim walked out of the tent, tall and bare-chested and proud. The guards stared in shock. "Mister Reim! You- ! You're healed!"

The old butler laughed weakly and experimentally rotated his right arm, feeling his pectoral muscles moving. Man was actually in quite decent shape for his age. "It is a complete recovery…"

Sue emerged from behind him and began to circle around her caretaker, dancing and skipping gaily. "It worked! It really worked! Grampy Reiiim! You're not going to die anymore!"

"Ahahaha… your choice of words aside, young miss, you are correct. I'm not leaving your side anytime soon."

One by one the rest of us emerged from the tent. Elze shucked off her bloody gloves, and Elze stretched out again, bending her spine back, because the operating tent was not actually big enough to stand up inside.

"Sir Zah Playa," Reim said strongly as I exited. "What you have done here today, we may never really truly repay."

I shook my head and summoned some water to clean my hands. "Don't worry about it. As I said before, it was never us that were shouldering the risks."

It would certainly have sucked if we failed after all of that, but it would have been a diabolos ex machina. As I said to Monika before, even if this isekai world had all the trappings, the best way to live it was to accept its reality. Its people are not actors, their pains real and their desires manifest. Its laws we have not figured out fully, but we have to live by them before we can figure out how to bend or break them.

"You saved Grampy Reim's life! I am never going to forget this!" Sue objected. "Just you wait until we get back home. I'll make sure Father gives you lots and lots! Whatever you want!"

I smiled a bit. "Yes, I do think we should hurry along. Now that Mister Reim is healed, we can't afford to move so slowly anymore."

Soon enough we were all packed and ready to leave. I was invited to sit inside the carriage with Sue and Reim. The girls preferred staying outside in the wagon, to better watch out for dangers. For the ten guards that originally accompanied Sushie Ernea Ortlinde, only four survived.

Before we could leave however, we spared some time to give our final respects to the fallen. It turned out that Maldon's younger brother was among the dead. We stood there in silence over the graves in the woods.

/"Punch me a line to heaven, Player. I want them to hear this."/

I nodded and raised my fist. "Come, Wind. Come, Thunder. Come, LIGHTNING!"

Krack-thoom!

A thunderbolt lanced down from a clear sky to strike at my gloved fist. I had no idea why I wasn't being electrocuted or burnt, but magic was strangely arbitrary like that.

And then Monika started playing the "Soldiers of Sorrow" cover by Andrew W.K. ¹⁾out through her speakers, amplified and resonant. ¹⁾ ʰᵗᵗᵖˢ:/ʷʷʷ.ʸᵒᵘᵗᵘᵇᵉ.ᶜᵒᵐ/ʷᵃᵗᶜʰ?ᵛ⁼⁸⁴ˢᑫᵛᶜ⁴³ᑫᶠQ

First, the piano notes. Then the sound came from all around us, as if the heavens had opened and a celestial orchestra blew the horns of omens and declared it was time to ROCK THE WORLD. We could really feel the bass going into our bones.

-o

-/ "Sorrow, the trembling sorrow

-/ Let me sing the goodbye music…"

-o

Monika's voice joined Andrew W.K.'s heartfelt screaming. Only a world that has known deep loss could make music that sounded so true. So many lives wasted, so many still dying for nothing, stuck in its endless cycle of ignorance and disenfranchisement.

Triumphant and yet bitter. Sue looked around, and clutched at her little chest, confused why it was hammering with all these unfamiliar emotions.

"This music –!" even Reim gasped, wide-eyed. "What are these instruments?!"

Yae's right hand inched towards her sword, but shakily she clenched her fists and forced it away. Elze and Linze leaned against each other.

-o

-/ "Sorrow! This living sorrow!

-/ Throw it away and make a beginning

-/ All the color will go into the earth

-/ Float away you proud living soldiers..."

-o

Maldon dropped to his knees and couldn't keep tears from flowing down his cheeks. "That's right! That's right- we're all soldiers of sorrow! You understand…!"

"This is why he's such a godly doctor…! Too late to save you all, but your deaths were not a waste!" another soldier blubbered out.

"My friends… they are covered in blackness… BUT THEY WILL EACH BURN BRIGHT RED!" the last surviving guards roared out.

-o

-/ "I pray – pray!

-/ To bring you a new day!"

-o

Krack- THOOM.

As the last notes trailed away, I lowered my hands and blinked tears from my eyes. What the hell. I've killed today! I saved a life today! I did so many things I'd never have dared before!

This song still really hits me hard… always reminding me that war was not an exciting time. We should always cherish the peace that was bought for us by the sacrifice of more worthy souls.

I felt Maldon give me a comradely punch to the shoulder. "Thanks for that, soldier. You're one of us now. No matter the battlefield, we're all the same aren't we?"

"No…" I touched my face, and my fingers stopped at the plastic casing in front of my eyes. "All of this is stolen glory. This is the least I can do to show my respect."

"Heh. Whatever you're running from, adventurer, it doesn't matter."

A strong wind passed through the clearing. He walked past me and only paused briefly to say "The gods of death are arriving, huh? On the wings of a wind storm? After someone dared to strike at the royal family this directly… after all of this…

"I can only pray, pray, we won't need them."

Suddenly the events of what happened a few hours earlier flashed through my mind. The rush of flight and free-fall… our powerful steps sweeping across open ground…

Air. Drill. Slam.

Shite.

/"There are consequences for so completely throwing away your old self, Player. Are you sure you're ready for all of them?/

-o

-o

AN: Stop raising flags, Playa!