"John?"
"John Wick?"
Upon hearing the name of someone Winston recognized quite well, he removed his glasses and looked seriously at Elion, then asked him, "Are you really a friend of John? Come, sit down."
Winston had no idea that someone recognized worldwide as the greatest of assassins, a demon no one wanted to see hunting, had such peculiar friendships.
Even more so after the death of his wife, he would have thought that he wouldn't want to associate with anyone other than his dog. That was, until it was killed by an idiotic child.
Having been invited, Elion sat down across from Winston, looking around a bit tense.
"Well…"
"So then, is there any position in this hotel that requires the skills of a good doctor?" Elion asked normally, thinking that perhaps if he acted this way, he wouldn't be looked down upon.
Winston chuckled and looked at Elion while taking a sip of his drink. "I've never seen someone so impatient to work. Tell me, is there a reason for that?"
After saying that, Winston made a small gesture to Charon, signaling him to leave them alone.
"Have a good night."
As soon as Charon withdrew, Winston turned his attention back to Elion, evaluating him with a more serious gaze. "Your name is Elion Whitmore. Your mother was a Roy before she died, but you never carried the surname of such a prestigious family."
"Now that you're on your own, are you looking for some kind of power? Do you think you'll have more influence or authority in the real world?" Winston had thoroughly investigated Elion and, upon discovering that he came from a powerful family, he had refused to accept him.
The Roys, although not controlled by the High Table, are part of the system, and associating with that disastrous family was something Winston did not need.
But now that an old friend had recommended Elion, Winston would take new initiatives.
"That's not it." Elion was surprised by that information, which even he himself hadn't known. Perhaps his parents thought that knowing it wouldn't benefit him at all, so they hid it from him, and that secret died with them.
But even now, after knowing it, Elion was not interested in anything other than reversing his symptoms and staying away from the clutches of death.
"Then I suppose you understand the importance of joining us, right? Have you seriously considered this question?" Winston only wanted to cover a few points that bothered him before giving the job to this friend of John.
Elion nodded seriously and said, "I understand."
"All right, you're hired. Go to room 818 now. You'll find everything you need there, as well as your first patient. Once you're done with your work, go see Charon. He'll explain a few things to you."
"Understood." Elion stood up to leave.
But before he walked away, Winston reminded him, "If you can't handle this job, you'll be fired, and it won't matter whether or not you're a friend of John Wick. That will stop being important."
Upon hearing Winston casually mention a warning, Elion deliberately smiled, showing that these words were no kind of pressure to him.
In an organization of assassins, something like friendship does not exist—only business, and rarely, codes.
But even if those codes did exist, Elion, who was a nobody, would not be given much consideration by Winston, even if he were the friend of an old friend.
After adjusting his clothes, Elion quickly left the underground club.
He didn't know the current condition of the person he would be treating, but treatment must always be carried out as soon as possible.
Winston put his glasses back on and, after making a few calls, smiled as he looked at the messages on his phone.
He had met many good doctors, all older and far more experienced than Elion, but none of them had that look that the young doctor standing before him had shown.
"He knows death." Winston did not underestimate John's friend. Elion had shown him that he had at least felt death up close.
That feeling that only assassins had was something you could sense. If Winston were to tell Elion right now that he was going to kill him, that doctor wouldn't cry or beg for mercy.
That kind of person is hard to find, and now that he had the chance to keep a man with those characteristics close, Winston would, of course, take advantage of it.
That is the kind of person who can survive in this world without being swallowed by wild dogs.
…
After leaving the underground club, Elion quickly arrived at room 818.
The door to room 818 was ajar at that moment.
As soon as Elion entered, he saw a woman covered in blood lying on the large bed.
Blood was flowing from a simple bandage on her left chest.
The cause of the bleeding was simple: she had been shot, specifically in the main artery above the left chest.
However, it was precisely because the hit was to the aorta, above the left chest, and not directly to the heart, that the assassin was still alive.
But at this rate of blood loss, the assassin could die at any moment, and an arterial suture needed to be performed as soon as possible.
Elion's gaze then turned toward the female assassin.
Beside her was a silver surgical tray, on which lay bloodstained scissors and fragments of clothing.
Clearly, someone had already treated the assassin's wounds before Elion arrived. However, after receiving an urgent notification, they left the mess in the hands of someone new like him.
Elion quickly looked over the surgical instruments he had and the bag of blood placed on ice.
Then, calmly, he used a pair of scissors to cut the clothing that was stuck to her skin due to blood clots.
After that, he roughly poured disinfectant alcohol near the wound.
Feeling pain, the assassin frowned deeply even while unconscious.
Elion didn't care about any of that. Since the assassin was already unconscious, he chose to simplify the operation as much as possible without worsening her injuries.
This is why many surgeries require anesthesia: first, to relieve the patient's pain during the procedure, and second, to make the doctor's work easier.
After disinfecting, Elion first removed the bullet that was preventing the wound from stopping its bleeding.
Next, he performed hemostasis using vascular clamps and cleaned the area with heparinized water. Afterward, Elion used surgical needles to begin the arterial suture.
This entire process was in his mind. Elion moved almost automatically, as if he had performed this procedure countless times before.
"You need blood…" Elion, knowing he was racing against the clock, attached a bag of blood to the assassin to give her a transfusion.
This emergency rescue was now complete.
Elion then wiped the sweat from his forehead, took a few safety precautions, and sat down in a guest chair to patiently wait and see if this woman would survive.
As the blood continued to flow, the assassin's pale face, which had been pale due to excessive blood loss, gradually regained its natural tone.
Her lips trembled slightly, her eyelashes fluttered a few times, and then, suddenly, she opened her eyes.
At the same time, Elion also received a notification that his life had been successfully extended.
"[Congratulations, you have significantly influenced the life of another person, and they are now out of the clutches of death.]"
[Reward]: Five days and five hours.
[Lifespan]: Thirty-two days and five hours.
The very next second, the surgical scissors that were on the metal tray beside the woman were in the assassin's hand.
She immediately stared at Elion for a few seconds before letting her body fall back onto the bed once again.