Thwack!
—Gurgle!
The goblin struck by my sword made a phlegmy sound as it planted its face on the ground.
I hit it squarely, but couldn't kill it instantly. My lack of strength was to blame.
"Ow."
My hand was actually ringing from the impact.
It was less like slicing with a sword and more like beating it with a club.
Swords really don't suit me.
I decided to just hold out until the knights could clean up the situation.
"Hup!"
This was a minimal technique I learned from Tanya.
She told me that these lowest-grade magical beasts, despite their size, generally hesitate to attack when faced with something that appears large, wasting time gauging their approach.
She said if I could buy time that way, she would handle them, so I should just wildly swing my sword around.
The technique: windmilling.
—Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh, thud!
My randomly swinging sword makes whistling sounds through the air before digging into the ground.
Seeing this, the goblins step back while grinding their teeth, watching for the right moment to pounce on me.
"Ugh, my arm hurts."
It's effective, but I can't keep this up for long.
Still, since Tanya taught me this technique, it's working exactly as described.
"Young Lord!"
While I was spinning my arms like a child, sure enough, Tanya appeared out of nowhere and instantly cleared out the remaining magical beasts.
"Oh my, my poor arm. Next time, handle them a bit faster, would you?"
Tanya looked at me and smiled brightly.
"I knew you could fight well. You executed it brilliantly in actual combat."
"What, so you deliberately delayed helping me?"
"Hehe, of course not."
Though she said that, her answer somehow felt like there was more to it.
Look at her.
"Hey, thanks to you, I missed my chance to showcase my healing skills. Six healers are already attending to the villagers, the rest are assisting the knights, and what am I doing?"
"Thanks to that, other healers got to shine. Assessing the situation is important in real combat. The lord will understand that too."
I turned to look at my father. He was gazing at me intently.
"Oh, are you regaining consciousness?"
"The healing magic is working!"
"We can return home alive now!"
Judging by the commotion among the healers, the villagers seemed to be waking up.
"If it weren't for you, Young Lord, we wouldn't have even known the villagers were kidnapped. That's a crucial contribution."
"What good is that? This is a physician's test, not an adventurer's exam."
Tanya confidently replied to me.
"The goblin shaman hunt isn't over yet. From now on, please properly assist our knights."
Tanya gave my shoulder a tough pat and returned to the main force.
The villager rescue was successfully completed. After the healers spent some time with them, they soon regained consciousness.
"Thank you so much! Our farmland is in the north, and we were looking for fertilizer near the forest when we were attacked."
"I thought we were going to die... *sob*. I don't know how to express my gratitude."
The two villagers were apparently a young couple who had recently become independent.
The couple kept bowing deeply to my father.
"Lord Marquis! How could such an esteemed person come to a place like this... it's an honor."
"Protecting the people is a lord's duty."
"If it weren't for the Marquis, the knights, and the healers, we would have died..."
"We almost failed to notice you had been kidnapped and nearly left. You should thank that person too," Tanya interjected, addressing the couple.
"What?"
"The Young Lord was the first to notice you were in danger. Thanks to him, we were able to plan the rescue operation."
"The Gotberg Young Lord!"
"Thank you so much. You're our lifesaver."
The couple rushed over to me, eagerly grasping my hands and bowing their heads.
Haha, no need to be so moved.
I was just fulfilling my duty as a physician.
"Don't run around like that when your injuries haven't been treated yet. You're low on blood, so you might faint from hypotension. Go home and eat some meat first."
"Hypotension...? Young Lord, you know such sophisticated terms."
"Yes, I'll take your words to heart."
It would be good if even basic medical knowledge could be widely shared with the general public.
Folk remedies often contain misconceptions, so it's important to spread accurate information from the start.
I do feel somewhat proud seeing patients walking around healthily.
Tanya ordered one knight to escort the villagers back to the entrance.
The main force continued to advance. We returned to the fork and headed down the left path.
"The attack means the goblins have tracked our movements. We need to be more cautious."
"Hmm."
My father tensed at Tanya's words.
I added:
"Moreover, it means there are small hidden tunnels all around that we can't easily see. We should assume we could be ambushed at any moment."
"I understand. We need to protect everyone here."
Father raised his rosary and began casting a spell. Not a healing one.
As he recited verses from the holy book, his body glowed softly. It was the process of his lifelong faith responding to divine power and transforming into a specific spell.
"...I seek help to pierce the dark veil, may your blessing descend upon us."
Small stars twinkled above the knights.
It was a [Blessing] series spell that only top-tier healers could use, unlocked in the later part of the healer skill tree.
"Ooh, he used Blessing!"
"My body feels much lighter."
The knights happily raised their swords and shields. The healers taking the test were also amazed by my father's skill.
"A blessing spell? Even dedicated healers who train their entire lives might never learn one."
"And he cast it on all these knights... as expected of Marquis Gotberg."
"The Gotberg family isn't known as a healing dynasty for nothing. But the Young Lord..."
I could feel the testing healers glancing at me.
"Earlier he was just swinging his sword instead of healing the sick."
"Perhaps his usual habits are showing."
You brats, if you're going to whisper, do it properly. I can hear everything.
Maybe my hearing is just sensitive. I've always kept my ears alert to avoid being attacked by magical beasts at night.
"If you have time to be careless, check your surroundings once more."
Tanya reprimanded the healers. They quieted down and followed behind the knights.
We resumed our exploration along the cave path.
I remained at the front with Tanya, who was commanding the entire operation from the vanguard.
"Goblins!"
The sharp-eyed Boris shouted, and battle commenced.
Goblins larger than the ones we saw earlier charged at us in formation, wielding clubs.
"Now they're openly declaring war instead of hiding!"
The sound of swords clashing with clubs and heavy bodies violently hitting the cave walls filled the air.
As the battle continued, our side inevitably sustained injuries.
When multiple goblins coordinated their attacks, even the Marquis's knights would take a few hits.
Arms were scraped by clubs, legs bruised. Some fell and dislocated their shoulders.
It was the healers' job to immediately heal them and support the battle.
"Ugh...!"
Some healers were trembling so badly they could barely stand, unable to properly cast healing spells.
When a healer becomes frightened, their faith—built not on knowledge but belief—diminishes according to the degree of fear.
Healing spells influenced by faith and divine power naturally weaken.
This was where the real scoring began.
"The ancient land split open and the goddess descended, leaving behind three scriptures!"
At least Gis was casting spells well, but he was targeting the wrong person.
"Diagnosis."
I scanned the knights.
Mostly those who had taken concentrated attacks or lacked sufficient skill.
[Injury Status: Bleeding]
[Injury Status: Fracture]
[Injury Status: Contusion]
...
Multiple status windows appeared, overlapping.
These were the diagnostic results for each fighting knight.
'Tanya is... fine.'
The one with the fracture is most urgent.
I tapped Gis on the shoulder.
"Young Lord? Don't disturb me!"
"That knight with the red armband on his arm—cast your spell on him first."
"What?"
"Captain Tanya has no injuries. You should be treating patients, not casting spells on uninjured people."
"How can you tell with all that armor? In this situation, if someone gets injured, they'll get healed one way or another!"
This is one of the inconvenient aspects of healing magic in battle.
Since you never know when frontline fighters will take damage, healers need to continuously cast spells.
That way, they can provide effects as quickly as possible from the moment of injury.
Since the healing location is random, blindly applying spells is the best method in the field.
"Just do as I say. His metatarsal bone is cracked. If he strains it more or takes another hit, it'll progress to a comminuted fracture that will take longer to heal."
"Why don't you do it yourself, Young Lord!"
"I have something better."
With that answer, I pulled a medicine bottle from my pocket.
Inside, a good red-colored liquid sparkled as it sloshed around.
"What is that?"
"Haven't seen it before? It's a famous panacea."
———————————
Enhanced Red Medicine (Property Modified)
Effect: Disinfects wounds when applied.
Special Effect: When used on soldiers, adds healing effect.
———————————
The military's panacea.
The red medicine.
To be precise, it's a disinfectant called povidone-iodine.
Originally, it should be made with chemically synthesized materials, so I couldn't just make it from scratch without the ingredients.
But the red medicine we know well is an improved second-generation product.
The first-generation red medicine was also made with mercury compounds.
'Mercury is surprisingly common as a magical material.'
Mercury was easy to obtain at the mansion.
By manipulating it with my [Property Modification] skill, I was able to create it.
Since it was based on my medical knowledge, it even gained healing effects specifically for military personnel.
While it's meant for those fulfilling their national defense duty, knights are similar enough.
After the battle ended, the knights began to regroup.
I walked around the knights using Diagnosis.
Boris, the knight on lookout duty, seemed like an appropriate subject.
———————————
Diagnosis activates.
Injury Status: Abrasion
Injury Location: Left shoulder
———————————
"Boris, your shoulder's injured, right? Let me see."
"Huh? Oh, yes."
I soaked a brush with the red medicine and dabbed it thickly on the wound.
Boris, startled by the unfamiliar sensation, hunched his shoulder.
"Oh my! What is this?"
"Just wait a moment."
After a short while, the red color that had been applied like body paint began to glow with a soft orange light.
This meant the healing effect was taking place.
"Oh, what's this...?"
A senior healer in charge of scoring became curious and came over to watch.
"Oh, the healing is definitely working. I've never seen this method before. Knight, how does it feel?"
"Somehow my wound feels much better. The pain is subsiding too."
I explained:
"The greatest advantage of this medicine is that it prevents wounds from worsening. The strong color also makes it easy to identify which injured people have been treated, saving time."
"I see. Is this holy water?"
"It's a potion made through alchemy."
"Alchemy, I see..."
The senior healer seemed surprised, as if unfamiliar with the concept. That was understandable.
He went back to discuss with the other examiners. They seemed quite taken aback by this unfamiliar treatment method.
But my father looked at me with satisfaction, as if he had expected this.
"Next knight, also an abrasion. You'll get better with red medicine too. Next, fracture. Apply the red medicine for now. You have a cold. Apply it to your throat."
In the time it took other healers to treat one knight, I could see five.
That's quite efficient.
In reality, the disinfectant was only appropriate for three of the knights, but I could score more points this way.
The more the better.
"Regrouping complete. Let's continue."
The unit advanced again at Tanya's command.
I had a feeling that the leader of this cave was very close.
You can visit my Patreon to read up to 50 chapters ahead of the public release. Every time one chapter is published here, the next chapter is released there as well.
Patreon.com/Asura555