The Quack Lady - Chapter 69

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

Episode 69

‘Wow. I did it.’

The feeling that tears might burst forth was only momentary.

I pulled myself together.

“Around 3:20 PM, it’s a boy.”

As soon as I announced the birth time, I immediately inserted my hand into the uterus and began removing the placenta.

Meanwhile, the baby completed the basic procedures and was wrapped in a pre-prepared swaddling cloth and placed on the scale.

Everything was flowing smoothly according to our preparations.

It was around the time I was finishing suturing the uterus.

“T-This is terrible!”

I turned my head at the midwife’s piercing scream.

There, the midwife was holding the baby with a pale face.

“T-The baby isn’t crying!”

“Give him to me!”

I immediately took the child.

The body of the child I received was limp.

I couldn’t hear crying, let alone breathing.

I looked at the foreign matter in his mouth with coldly sunken eyes.

“What are you doing…!”

Despite the midwife’s restraint, I immediately lowered the child’s head and swept out the amniotic fluid from his mouth with my hand.

‘If the airway isn’t secured, hitting his back won’t help no matter what.’

“Give me a cloth!”

Then I immediately received a cloth and roughly rubbed the child’s body.

So the child’s lungs could expand. I kept delivering very strong tactile stimulation.

“Please! Breathe!”

Still, there was no response.

I immediately placed two fingers on the center of the child’s chest.

It was very gentle and weak chest compression.

‘Please! Please beat!’

I hoped the tiny heart the size of a bean would find strength.

I prayed and prayed again while compressing the child’s heart.

That’s when it happened.

“Waaaaah-!”

A sharp cry burst out, breaking the silence.

As color began to return to the child’s purple skin, I finally felt blood flowing through my body too.

“I saved him…”

“My goodness…”

The emergency compression finally made the child burst into his first cry toward the outside world.

After that, I examined the baby a little more, then carefully handed him to the maid.

Because the next task was waiting.

‘I can do it. Let’s try.’

I immediately went to the mother and continued the suturing.

Perhaps because the tension was released due to the fact that the baby came out safely, my hand movements became more fluid.

Of course, my head and heart were different, so strangely I felt like crying.

‘Not yet. Let’s focus.’

I continued suturing with the child’s crying as background.

Click-

When I safely finished the suturing, sighs of relief finally flowed from around me.

“Is it over…?”

At my breathing, the Duchess asked in a weak voice.

“Yes. It’s all finished.”

“My goodness…”

Then I heard her sobbing. I approached her and said.

“The surgery ended very well. I made the fascial suture very strong, so the wound won’t open.”

“Thank you… Really thank you…”

She sat up with the maids’ support.

Then suddenly!

She suddenly hugged me.

Rather than hugging, it looked more like she was leaning and collapsing on me due to the anesthesia.

“Y-You can’t do this! Blood will get on your clothes…!”

“Thank you so much, Rtemeia. Really.”

“…”

She expressed her gratitude to me even though the anesthesia hadn’t fully worn off.

I patted her back and said.

“…Congratulations on becoming a mother, Brien.”

When I offered congratulations, tears fell from her eyes as if she had been waiting.

After that, I told Tenoa he had worked hard and quickly left that place, heading to the bathroom.

“Urgh! Urgh!”

Perhaps because I hadn’t eaten for several days due to tension, there was nothing to throw up, but my heart felt relieved.

“I… did it.”

I covered my face with my empty hands.

My trembling hands and soaked eyes told me that everything was over.

It was the first surgery I performed with a twelve-year-old body…

And it was also my first surgery.

* * *

Robein, sitting face to face with the Duke, looked very uncomfortable.

“Without even the Duke’s permission at the Duke’s mansion… The temple has become quite bold.”

“I sincerely apologize for visiting somewhat urgently. However, I hope you understand that it was an action the temple took to protect the Duke and furthermore the Young Baron.”

He explained in detail from his position why the Young Baron shouldn’t be at the Duke’s mansion and why they shouldn’t perform something called surgery.

“Hmm…”

As expected, the Duke only let out a low breath as if it wasn’t a big deal.

At this, Robein let out a short breath.

“Duke. If you carelessly wound the body given by God, you cannot escape God’s punishment.”

“Who delivers that punishment?”

“Pardon?”

“Should I speak to God? To not give punishment this time?”

“That’s not what I meant…”

“Sir Robein.”

Soon a low voice called the knight commander’s name, and Robein straightened his back and corrected his posture.

“This is a child we had with difficulty. My wife, with a strong will that even God cannot stop, is trying to protect the child even at the risk of putting a knife to her body.”

“…”

“Because I love such a wife, I want to respect her will and choice.”

“But…!”

“That is how I love her. Even if it becomes blasphemy. Because the only thing I believe in is my wife.”

The Duke’s face was very calm for someone speaking of blasphemy.

At that incongruous sight, he suddenly thought of Zenhauer.

The one who trembled finely with anger but never lost his smile until the end.

“Duke. Blasphemy is a great sin. You shouldn’t speak of it so lightly.”

“Why do you think what I’m saying is light?”

“…”

“It was one of the very few truly careful considerations in my life. But I have no regrets.”

“…What if that choice was wrong?”

Robein hesitated for a moment and asked the Duke.

The Duke burst into a chuckle at the word ‘wrong.’

“Then let me ask you the opposite. If this surgery could save both the child and the Countess’s lives, what would you do then?”

“…”

“Would you be able to acknowledge then that it wasn’t wrong, but rather a ‘different method,’ Captain?”

Different. That word pierced into Robein’s heart like a thorn.

However.

‘No. The Duke is wrong.’

Having finished that thought, Robein nodded his head.

“Very well. If both the child and the mother survive and live for more than a year, then I will take responsibility and step down from my position.”

How many times had he witnessed miracles?

He believed in God.

And he knew that such miracles belonged solely to God’s domain.

At that moment, the door burst open.

“The Marchioness’s surgery is completely finished.”

* * *

The Duke roughly threw open the door to the Marchioness’s bedroom and shouted.

“Countess!”

As if he couldn’t see the baby, he went straight to the Countess and stroked her head.

“How is your body? Is there anywhere that hurts?”

While he kept looking around frantically, Robein immediately looked for the baby behind him.

And.

‘It’s really alive?’

It had been barely an hour.

In that time, they had saved both the mother and baby?

“Rapid, stop it. You need to see our baby too.”

“Ah, the baby.”

Only then did he shake his head and look for the baby.

The maids behind them smiled and placed the small baby in his arms.

“Ah, ah…”

The Duke seemed flustered and didn’t know what to do. Then.

“Welcome…”

At his carefully chosen words, his eyes became bright once again.

“I was going to scold you for troubling your mother when I met you…”

“…”

“But you look like such an angel.”

Like someone imprinted, he couldn’t take his eyes off the baby.

“Thank you. Brien.”

The Duke gently kissed the Countess’s forehead, as if giving a kiss of gratitude to God.

The sight looked as if it had received God’s blessing.

Robein raised one hand and quietly covered his mouth.

‘Not yet. A year must pass.’

When skin was incised or limbs amputated, most people couldn’t survive a year.

This was the same for his commoner parents.

“…Congratulations, Duke.”

It was a strange feeling.

He politely offered his congratulations to the Duke.

Then, suddenly, a small girl trying to hide herself came into his view.

The girl with faded wheat-colored hair immediately lowered her head when their eyes met.

‘Is it that child?’

All of this was the result of a mere twelve-year-old child’s hands?

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