The Quack Lady - Chapter 23

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Episode 23

* * *

As soon as the Countess regained her composure, she asked who the doctor was, and Mr. Pairon, recognizing the severity of the situation, claimed to be the doctor himself and went with her in my place.

“Don’t worry. I’ll handle this well and come back.”

A reassuring hand gently stroked my head.

However.

‘As if that would work…’

To make matters worse, Eruten seemed to have noticed something strange and left, saying he would look around the manor.

Thanks to that, I was left alone with Mr. Hanel in the drawing room, pulling at my hair and muttering.

Things were more tangled than I had thought.

‘To think that in a situation where a child needs treatment, the two caretakers would be in such opposition.’

Come to think of it, it wasn’t such a rare sight. There are usually many parents who argue with a child between them.

“I’m the mother, so I know the child’s condition better! I told you something was wrong with the child!”

“It’ll pass if you just endure it a bit. There’s no need to make such a fuss by coming to such a big hospital for something like this!”

It was a sound I heard every day in the pediatric ward corridor.

Sometimes the father, sometimes the mother.

They would react sensitively to the child’s illness and argue with the other caregiver.

As expected, such arguments between caregivers inevitably cause confusion for the child.

Treatment in such a situation.

“Haah…”

As I let out a frustrated breath, my cheek was immediately pinched.

“Hey, kid, you haven’t lived your whole life yet, so why are you sighing so deeply.”

Mr. Hanel was still grumbling that he had gotten caught up in the wrong thing.

“Hey, this is all because you’re too good at treating people.”

“Didn’t you say you supported my dream before?”

“What? Your dream is to be a doctor? Really?”

Mr. Hanel asked back in a strangely excited tone.

He had the face of a parent moved by their child bringing their first drawing.

“No.”

“Hey! Are you making fun of an adult?”

Mr. Hanel immediately jumped up from his seat and frowned deeply.

Of course, about 3 seconds later, perhaps feeling foolish, he sat back down with a thud.

He cleared his throat for a moment, then spoke carefully.

“But do you know anything? Are there medicines at the apothecary for people who don’t speak… something like that?”

“What is the apothecary, some magic shop? Where would there be medicine to make people speak?”

“…”

Perhaps finding his own question strange, Mr. Hanel only coughed dryly.

“It’s not that there’s absolutely no way…”

I stroked my chin with one hand and stared blankly at the ceiling.

In my mind, I was rewinding the memories of my previous life like a tape.

‘So… was patient 1304 suffering from mutism?’

Mutism.

Literally a symptom where the mouth closes. In other words, it’s not that they won’t speak, but that they can’t.

Honestly, I had considered aphasia too, but…

If they weren’t even making sounds, it was likely that the child was consciously not speaking.

‘Ah, this is going to be tricky.’

Mental problems were issues of a different dimension.

Not only was there no proper medicine for the child’s symptoms…

Whatever the case, if they couldn’t speak, I would need to find the cause.

If it happened to be a genetically manifested case…

“It might be untreatable…”

As I muttered lowly, Mr. Hanel turned his body sideways and started getting agitated.

“Hey! What do you mean by that! Untreatable! You just said it’s not that there’s absolutely no way!”

“Even if they’re in pain, they can’t speak. If the patient can’t talk, how can I know the symptoms? And how can I prescribe treatment? I can’t just trust what the caretakers say.”

“Ah…”

Mr. Hanel let out a low exclamation, as if he hadn’t thought that far.

I was just as frustrated.

However, Mr. Hanel was someone who didn’t give up as easily as I thought.

He straightened his posture and began asking quite seriously.

“Still, they should be able to answer questions, right? Like pointing to their stomach to indicate a stomachache…”

“The Countess just said that even when bleeding, the child didn’t speak. That means they don’t even feel the need to communicate it.”

“What?”

“They’re depressed.”

“Depressed?”

Mutism can inevitably be accompanied by depression.

In a way, it was natural. If you ‘can’t’ speak, you feel frustrated and pathetic, and easily fall into depression because of it.

I waved my hand dismissively.

“Anyway, I might not be able to treat it. Or it might take an extremely long time.”

Now understanding the situation, Mr. Hanel asked with a blank face.

“Then what do we do?”

“We’ll just have to claim illness and run away. This is beyond my capabilities.”

Even though I had learned pediatric psychiatry, this was outside my area of expertise.

It was while I was having various thoughts that.

The drawing room door opened with a creaking sound.

And what appeared there was, as expected…

“Mr. Pairon!”

As I greeted him cheerfully, a woman appeared from behind him.

“I’m late with introductions. I am Ditten Bernov, the mistress of Bernov Estate.”

Her unexpected appearance made my whole body seem to stiffen.

…It seemed that my downfall was currently in progress.

* * *

Pairon closed his eyes tightly and opened them. What caught his vision was the long corridor of the Count’s manor covered with wide red carpet.

And even the backs of the Countess and maids walking ahead of him.

He suddenly recalled the situation from a moment ago in his mind.

“I am the doctor.”

A moment ago, when the Countess asked who the doctor was, it was he who had answered.

Seeing the Count and Countess sharply at odds, he instinctively felt he had to protect Rtemeia.

Very fortunately, they didn’t seem to know yet that Rtemeia was the doctor.

The rift was deeper than he had anticipated. In such a situation, it would be problematic whether the treatment succeeded or failed.

‘Some good method…’

It was when he was following behind the Countess, biting his lips as if chewing them.

“This is the place.”

The place guided by the Countess and maid was a room with the largest and most splendid door in the manor.

So much so that a stranger might mistake it for the head of household’s room.

However, the maid passed by that room and opened the door to the adjacent room.

“Please enter.”

At her guidance, the Countess entered first, followed by Pairon.

The room attached to the luxurious room seemed to be furnished for servants to stay in.

Of course, for such a room, it showed quite a bit of care in various places.

A somewhat larger bed, and even a sofa and table arranged to receive guests.

From the medical instruments placed throughout, he nodded as he guessed how this place was used.

‘It must be a place where doctors stay and provide treatment.’

It wasn’t particularly surprising that a manor the size of the Count’s estate had a separate treatment room.

No, more precisely, it would be stranger if a manor of this caliber didn’t have a treatment room.

However, if that room with the massive doors really was Young Count Demian’s room as expected…

‘His condition must be poor enough to warrant setting up a personal treatment room right next door.’

It was just then that he swallowed his dry saliva.

“I’m afraid I’ve shown you an unseemly sight. Please, have a seat for now.”

She gestured to the sofa across from her. As Pairon sat down, refreshments were naturally served.

However, neither of them even glanced at the refreshments as they silently looked at each other.

Afterward, it was the Countess who first broke the silence.

“As you expected, this is where the doctors who treated Demian used to stay. The clergy were no exception either.”

“…I see.”

“Yes. But they all threw up their hands in defeat and left. At the end, one even poured holy water into Demian’s mouth, claiming he wanted to at least hear Demian’s voice, which nearly endangered Demian’s life.”

“…!”

The Countess informed him of this fact calmly without changing her expression at all.

“Through all these incidents, I never gave up on Demian. I couldn’t. At that time, one of our maids happened to mention that the doctors at the place where she received treatment were quite skilled, so I tried to invite them separately.”

“I see.”

“In the midst of that, the Clinic Director told me he had found a capable doctor and suggested I visit the Aphenus Guild. Of course, I did my own research as well.”

She gestured to the maid behind her.

Soon the maid unrolled and displayed a small rolled parchment.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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