The Magic Academy's Physicist-Chapter 66: For The One Who Cares For Me (2)

I thought about this every now and then.

Would things have been different if I had gone to med school instead of into physics?

Sourness wafted from a raw memory. That time when I had just entered university and right before I became a legal adult, I was told I was stupid more than ever.

Everyone called me crazy. My parents were enraged, and the teacher kept trying to persuade me while showing me my placement chart plastered with green1. Our family was so poor that we lived in the side room of a semi-basement, so my program choice was the fuse that triggered division in the family.

─ Why are you acting like your sister!!

My older sister who had told me not to think about money and do what I wanted.

She resembled the daughter of the Saliere family, now that I think about it.

She was someone who considered others first no matter how difficult things were and followed ideals rather than reality.

“Huu-ugh....”

The sea of consciousness vanished at the sound of Lotte’s whimper. Faint memories faded like a mirage and only the sands of reality remained.

I changed Lotte’s towel and sat down.

I’d been up for three days nursing my roommate. My eyelids were heavy. They stayed dry even after blinking and putting in drops. It wasn’t going to go away until I got some sleep.

The damp towel wasn’t the only thing I needed to change.

Hygiene was also a concern. I had to squeeze out every bit of mana that I didn’t have while constantly checking to make sure that the EMP scroll and hygiene scroll were running.

I couldn’t smoke in a patient room. The air needed to be kept clean so that Lotte could breathe.

My head throbbed like it was going to burst. My eyes would open instinctively anytime I tried to take a nap. I was scared that my friend could become a body during that brief time so it was simply impossible to relax and fall asleep.

It was why I was nursing Lotte despite there being doctors and nurses. Because I couldn’t fully trust another person and most importantly, the severe shortage of nursing staff.

“Huu.”

I felt dazed. It was like experiencing the butterfly dream2.

To the point that it was hard to distinguish where I was in Aether’s body, or I was an existence within Aether’s dream. If it was the latter, then I could only hope that this whole thing would come to an end as a one-night nightmare.

“Ahm... ohkaay.......”

“... I told you not to talk.”

The sheets were damp with perspiration. Her forehead was still burning but the arms and legs were cold. This was a situation in which she could start ironizing at any time.

The only thing I could do was change her towel and feed her the solution. I didn’t learn to give injections so I had to ask the infirmary teacher to administer the antibiotics. I never imagined that medical work would be this difficult.

Medicine definitely wasn’t for me. These weren’t things I could do.

Yet.

Despite that.

I had to do this.

I wasn’t qualified to be called a medic but I chose to nurse Lotte. All plans for returning to my original world were put on the backburner.

Was I doing this in return for the silver that Lotte gave me.... Probably not.

“Ah.”

When I came to, another four days had passed.

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A week. Shouldn’t she be getting better by now?

“You’re, fine...?”

“I’m good so just worry about yourself.”

“Hehe....”

Barely grasping onto my blurring consciousness, I began to self-diagnose.

My throat didn’t sting. Not a trace of a cold sweat. No fever, lumps, chills, coughing, or phlegm. Considering the incubation period of the plague, it would be difficult to say that I was infected.

Bluntly put, unless someone cursed me, the chances of me collapsing here were out of the.......

Wait.

Wait a minute.

What did that plague doctor say at the end?

─ I cannot simply depart without doing anything for my reputation’s sake, so perhaps I will leave a parting gift.

Suddenly, a ridiculous hypothesis flashed across my mind.

Lotte had followed quarantine procedures more thoroughly than anyone. She never came into contact with anyone infected, and the dorm always had the EMP scroll on so the probability of being bitten by a mosquito were minimal.

Did he put the curse himself?

If that was true, then the infection route was extremely unscientific.

But this world was half-fantasy. A world in a time period with the sciences to mass produce sulfonamides and simultaneously incorporate irrational things like Elemental and Element Magic as part of their discipline.

Considering that, it wasn’t completely without verisimilitude....

Yeah, that crow-beak mask-wearing fucker must have done something.

**

About ten days after Lotte was infected by the Black Death.

Despite the continual administration of citronella tree extract solution and antibiotics, the symptoms of metalizing started to appear.

At this point, it was undeniable that the disease was heading into the late stages.

My lips trembled. The graph of my already overtaxed condition took a dive. My mental state hadn’t suffered this much even during my time under Professor Hasfeldt.

Lotte coughed occasionally, and each time blood spilled from the side of her mouth. When I saw this, I called the hotline and asked if I could get additional medical supplies.

The answer I got was utterly dismal.

“You’re... out of antibiotics?”

[Because prices are unstable right now! They’re struggling on the northern front as well so it seems that demands have soared!]

If the antibiotics weren’t continuously administered until the bacteria was killed, then they developed tolerance. The Academy was also running out of supplies so I had to grit my teeth and ask the price of penicillin on the market.

[The price jumped over twentyfold. It apparently costs ten gold per injection now.]

“Ten gold?”

The Empire was a nation that had the technology and resources to mass produce high-quality products. For a commonly used drug to be this expensive meant that the financial situation of the country was in a mess.

[Yes. The Academy is waiting since they’ve deemed that it wouldn’t be too late to purchase it after the price lowers. Now all we have are first-aid medicines.]

I turned my head. A friend was dying right next to me.

There was no time to negotiate prices.

“I’ll take it. Please send a week’s worth of medicine.”

[Uh, it’s going to be costly....]

“But I have a favor to ask of you, Dr. Glyston.”

[Oh? Sure, tell me.]

“Will you lend me some money?”

Being indebted.

The thing I hated most, the last thing I wanted to do.

Debts made people irresponsible and complacent. Not only did it make someone less driven by killing their desire for improvement to live better financially, I believed it was a root cause for broken relationships.

But this time, I let go of my pride.

[... Count Saliere will appreciate it. She has a good friend.]

An affirmative. And not long after, the hotline disconnected.

I couldn’t rest yet. If I couldn’t help Lotte medically, then I was going to use all my connections and skills to save my roommate.

I dialed many different lines.

A friend I was usually close with, a distant classmate.

The teacher I respected and even the seniors who I only knew by name.

I contacted any and every one I could, everything else be damned.

Heaven helps those who helped themselves, no?

I was far too tainted a human to be praying to the Absolute, but the Goddess who dropped me here for one wrong review must be giving a chance to a loser like me, too.

Not even half a day later, I sighed in relief after receiving the call that emergency medical supplies had been transported inside the Academy.

[The deposit was higher than expected. In whose name did you borrow 500 gold?]

“Excuse me?”

I had contacted the transmigrator for money as well but that wasn’t the amount he gave me.

“...Who was it?”

Unless they were a greater noble, there was no on the continent who’d willingly pay that much.

My head hurt thinking about repaying them afterwards, but it didn’t matter. I decided to thank them later and focused on checking Lotte’s vitals for now.

I scraped away any ironized areas with a blade before it spread, and administered the expensive antibiotics when the infirmary teacher visited.

On the twelfth day, Shadiel, the head of the disciplinary committee, came and sang songs. The hymns she sang was a unique Innate Magic of the Duke Argana family which had the effect of comforting the mind and body.

By this time, other doctors were interested in my condition.

“It seems that you’re immune to the plague, Miss Aether.”

They mentioned that they’d later like to have multiple samples of my blood–for a hefty compensation, of course. I accepted eagerly since I’d have to start paying back right away after this ordeal.

Come to think of it, I’d never gotten a scratch, let alone bled since I became this body. The Golden-Eyed really must have outstanding physical abilities.

And finally, on the fourteenth day.

It happened around noon, when Lotte was suffering immensely from ironizing and I was at my limits as well.

Bang!

“Guys! We have the cure!”

The two elves opened the room door and came in.

I started to see the light.

1. A placement chart allows students who have taken CSAT to see what colleges they can potentially apply for. Green sections indicate that they have high chances of getting into that college. MC decided to pass on them, reducing the chances of getting a job that could help the family situation in the future (like med school)2. A famous dream "illustrating that "the distinction between waking and dreaming is another false dichotomy.""https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zhuangzi_(book)#%22The_Butterfly_Dream%22