The Imperial Medical Office
The Imperial Medical Office is a place where the Empire's finest healers gather, consisting of 22 chief physicians responsible for healing the imperial family and about 400 assistant healers.
Befitting a powerful nation, the skill level of the Imperial Medical Office healers is as high as that of the Holy Kingdom, where religion and healing arts first originated.
While the chief physicians' primary duty is to care for their lords, they sometimes heal high nobles according to their lords' interests.
Lower-ranked healers affiliated with various factions divide their time between assistant duties and healing ordinary citizens to improve their skills.
This is why the Imperial Medical Office is located at the wall connecting the Imperial Palace grounds and the Imperial Plaza.
Inside the wall are offices, while outside is an open space for receiving patients.
It's a kind of welfare policy designed to strengthen citizens' loyalty by allowing them to receive the Emperor's grace.
Of course, they still have to pay.
As a result, the lower-ranked healers are worn down by excessive workloads.
Chloe, in her fifth year at the Imperial Medical Office, was one of those healers being ground down daily.
"Healer, do your job properly. Why is this taking so long? I'm a noble from the western region, you know. A baron, I tell you!"
"Ugh, j-just a moment..."
Chloe hurriedly infused more divine power. In her haste, her ghostly long bangs covered her entire face.
The patient receiving her treatment burst out in complaint. He was a middle-aged man with a nasty disposition.
"This is so frustrating. I came here expecting something from the Imperial Medical Office, but this is nothing special! I'd be better off with my personal physician!"
Obviously, if he had a personal physician, he wouldn't need to come here.
Usually, such ill-mannered nobles were barons who had bought their titles. Nouveau riche who purchased their status with money.
Such nobles were typically rough in their manners.
Of course, there was no shortage of difficult patients beyond them.
"Um, excuse me."
"What?"
Chloe timidly closed her holy book.
"The healing is complete... Um... There's this medicine in the imperial palace these days..."
The man perked up his ears.
"Medicine? I've heard rumors. Something called aspirin that's quite effective against epidemics. I couldn't find a way to get it though. Do you have any left?"
"Eek, no!"
"Then why are you keeping a busy person waiting?"
"It's not aspirin, but..."
Chloe pulled out a small cloth bundle from her chest. Inside were several small, round rice cakes.
"What's this?"
"Um, it's something that prevents you from getting sick again after you've been ill once... Ah, it might cause an upset stomach though..."
The man picked up a rice cake and sniffed it.
"Ugh, what is this!"
He threw the rice cake away immediately.
"This is rotten bread!"
Chloe hurriedly picked up the rice cake and held out a large book.
"The cultivation didn't go quite right... But it still works... It's mentioned in this ancient text..."
"What a crazy woman."
The noble man spat out a string of curses and stormed out of the Medical Office.
Chloe pouted, hugging an ancient book with its cover so worn it was unrecognizable.
"Hey, Healer Chloe. You weren't experimenting on patients again, were you?"
A passing colleague admonished her.
Chloe hung her head low and shook it vigorously. This caused her long hair, which covered her face like a curtain, to flutter wildly.
"I don't understand why someone who should know better keeps doing this. If you get caught using that 'folk remedy' or whatever it is, Bishop won't let it slide."
"Y-yes..."
Chloe was a healer under Bishop Alberich, the chief physician to the First Princess Heike.
As Heike's faction was strong in the imperial family, Alberich's influence was quite powerful within the Medical Office.
He was an orthodox healer from the Holy Kingdom's clergy. He always strictly emphasized following only what was written in the holy book.
The holy book stated that our flesh and blood are gifts from the Goddess, and when lost to injury, one must pray first to receive them back.
It claimed that if one neglects faith due to pain and uses heretical methods, the injury will only worsen.
But Chloe thought differently.
'Folk remedies can heal too...'
Generally, prayer came first, but folk remedies were secretly widespread among common people who couldn't access healers.
'Though many are fake...'
Chloe searched ancient texts written before the founding of the Holy Kingdom for traces of genuine folk remedies.
The moldy rice cakes she had were her attempt to recreate something from those ancient texts.
'Aspirin is real.'
It wasn't just a rumor that a small medicine pill could improve epidemic diseases.
People had witnessed how healthy the knights of Wolgwang Palace were at the martial arts tournament after taking aspirin and wearing masks.
'I wonder what kind of person Teacher Gotberg is.'
Even though she worked at the Medical Office, as a low-ranking healer, she couldn't even speak to the chief physicians who seemed as distant as the sky.
After spending all day on duties and errands, she could only catch glimpses of them from afar.
"N-next patient..."
"Oh, Healer."
An elderly couple approached Chloe with friendly attitudes.
"H-hello."
"Hehe, we've come to see you again. Thank you for last time. Thanks to you, my wife's condition has improved greatly. Your skills are truly the best!"
"I-I'm just doing my job..."
Chloe squirmed shyly at the praise.
For ordinary people to use the Imperial Medical Office, they had to make reservations months in advance.
Chloe was incredibly grateful to these elderly people who had waited so long for her.
She cast her spell with all her heart and soul for them.
After the healing was complete, the elderly couple's faces bloomed with smiles.
"Thank you so much as always. We'll see you again in four months. If we're still alive, that is, haha! By the way, do you have any folk remedies to share like last time?"
At the old man's question, Chloe's eyes lit up.
She thrust her face forward and opened her ancient book.
"Y-yes! Here, it says to eat chicken soup for the epidemic that's going around these days. Oh, have you seen people wearing masks on the streets? It's not just a fashion statement. Chief Physician Lars Gotberg developed them, and they lower the chance of catching the epidemic."
Chloe rattled off words like a machine gun, as if she'd been waiting for this moment.
Without stopping her momentum, she bent down to take out the bundle of rice cakes she had put away earlier.
"A-and! This, if you eat this, the ancient text says you won't catch other diseases. When I tried it myself, I did get a stomach ache, but...!"
Chloe looked up with a beaming smile.
Suddenly, a splendid white clerical robe blocked her view.
Slowly raising her head, she saw a stern face looking down at her.
"Did an Imperial Medical Office healer just mention the words 'folk remedy'?"
"Gasp."
Chloe dropped the rice cake she was holding, sensing that she was in big trouble.
The figure standing before her was Bishop Alberich, the head of her faction.
Alberich wrinkled his nose at the rotten smell wafting up.
"This is why I need to conduct inspections regularly. What a mess. You're fired. Remove her immediately."
"Eek...! W-wait...!"
Chloe couldn't even offer an excuse before being dragged away by other healers.
"Waaah, waaah."
Chloe left the Imperial Medical Office carrying a box with her belongings, shedding tiny tears.
"She lasted longer than expected. I'm surprised she wasn't fired earlier."
"That's why she remained a low-ranking healer for five years. Good riddance. Now there's an opening in the Bishop's faction, maybe I should apply."
The taunts from other healers didn't even register in her ears.
Chloe was sad that she wouldn't be able to see patients anymore.
Being fired from the Imperial Medical Office, where the future was guaranteed, meant she was the worst of the worst. No one anywhere would accept healing from her. Maybe only desperate adventurers might consider it.
"What's wrong with folk remedies..."
They're desperately needed by people who can't receive healing arts.
Chloe looked at the ancient book in her box.
It was borrowed from the Imperial Library, which was full of strange books.
The librarian was so careless that even though she was long past the return date, there had been no contact.
Or maybe the librarian got fired like me.
Where should I go after being expelled from the palace?
As Chloe was walking along lost in various thoughts:
Thud.
Another human shadow fell across her path. This time it was a snow-white coat.
Come to think of it, her mother always told her to keep her head up when walking. I almost bumped into someone.
"Keep your head up when you walk. You'll get a turtle neck."
At the somewhat flippant tone, Chloe raised her gaze slightly to look at the owner of the voice.
"Gasp."
She inhaled sharply without realizing it.
Before her stood the distinguished person whom she had only been able to see from afar, striding impressively through the Medical Office accompanied by guard knights.
"G-Gorbachev, sir...!"
"Who's that?"
She had been rude at their first meeting. She bit her tongue in embarrassment.
Lars Gotberg picked up the ancient book from Chloe's belongings.
"The catalog clearly listed this as available, but I couldn't find it anywhere. What are you going to do about that?"
"Um, ugh, sorry."
Next, Lars picked up Chloe's rice cake and examined it.
"Penicillin, huh?"
"Gasp. You know what it is?"
"Hmm."
Without warning, Lars suddenly thrust his face toward Chloe.
Chloe froze at the sight of his face. It felt as if her breath and heart had stopped.
He made her an offer.
"You, become a nurse."
***
"You, become a nurse."
"Uh-uh-uh. Buh-buh-buh."
At my proposal, Chloe's legs gave way and she convulsed on the floor.
I decided to wait until she returned to normal.
I had confirmed the name Chloe on the library loan list and had been searching for her.
There must be at least ten people named Chloe in the imperial palace.
Without national ID cards, I had to search through personnel records in each palace, which was quite a hassle.
The ancient book was one of the few texts about folk remedies in this world.
Even though relying entirely on healing arts is the norm, some folk remedies have spread nonetheless.
The problem is that so few of them are accurate that they actually undermine trust in medicine.
For instance, incorrect folk remedies like pricking your finger to cure indigestion.
For indigestion, you should take digestive medicine.
Since folk remedies that could foster medical thinking are ineffective, people end up relying on healing arts again, creating a repeating cycle.
"N-nurse? W-what is a nurse?"
"Simply put, you'll be my direct assistant."
"D-direct!"
Chloe immediately bowed deeply to me.
"Re-achoo! Re-employment! You're offering me re-employment...!"
Was that a sneeze in the middle?
I think I might have chosen the wrong person.
She borrowed a folk remedy book and even attempted to cultivate blue mold.
That's the material for penicillin, the first antibiotic.
I gave her high marks for that and thought about using her as a nurse, but she seems quite scatterbrained.
Well, given her age in this life, she's probably older than me.
She might be useful with some training.
"Well then, Chloe, let's start with your education."
"Education?"
"Yes. I'll teach you how to draw blood from the Princess when I'm not around."
Chloe's mouth formed a perfect O, like a goldfish.
"...Princess Asella?"
"Yes. Princess Asella."
"Draw blood?"
"We have to. Whoosh."
Oh my, she's so happy she's tearing up.
That makes me feel proud.