Who was speaking behind him?
Gretel didn't dare turn around, afraid he'd drop the book in his hands and be unable to pay for it. He carefully pushed it back onto the shelf, then turned around. When he saw the man at the door... who was this?
The newcomer was a young man, around twenty, with flaxen hair and a black mage's robe. When Gretel turned, he flashed a cheerful grin, his white teeth gleaming.
"Hey, kid!"
"Sir Mage." Gretel bowed, baffled. Who was this overly familiar guy?
As he bowed, he saw the newcomer leaning against the doorframe, his right foot barely touching the ground. He seemed afraid to put weight on it. Gretel suddenly understood. No wonder he hadn't recognized him. Yesterday, that guy had been blasted out of the Mage Tower, his whole face blackened with soot. The only thing Gretel had recognized was his gleaming white teeth...
"Mr. Eliot! Is your foot still not better?"
"How could it be better so soon?"
The man grimaced and hopped over to sit at the table, clearly having badly twisted it the day before. Gretel came closer and took a look. "Didn't you get treatment?"
"You're kidding! Healing Potions are so expensive!"
Eliot cried out. Then, as if he realized he shouldn't be losing his composure in front of a newcomer, he gave an awkward smile. Gretel had already walked around the long table and come over to him.
"May I take a look?"
"Ah—oh, right. You're a healer. Go ahead!"
Gretel crouched by his foot. On closer inspection, he saw that the outer side of Eliot's right ankle was swollen like a steamed bun, while the inner side looked fine. The top of his foot was badly swollen, too. Gretel held the man's ankle with his left hand and pressed his right thumb firmly against the outer ligament—
"Ow!"
Eliot yelped and jerked his foot away. Balancing on his right foot, he hopped away on his left, trying to escape.
"Aren't you a healer? Where's your healing spell?"
"I'm checking because I'm a healer!" Gretel shouted back. As he yelled, he kept his eyes fixed on Eliot's right foot as it touched the ground. He could still put a little weight on it. Good, there probably wasn't a fracture. As for the ligament, the pain from that one press suggested the lateral collateral ligament had torn—
"Bring your foot back!"
Eliot tried desperately to get away. Unfortunately, he couldn't run fast on one bad leg. He tried to cast a spell, but the pain kept distracting him. Gretel lunged forward and grabbed him. Crouching down, he pressed along the outer edge of the right ankle bone, one spot at a time, then held the foot and rotated it inward and outward.
"Does it hurt here? What about here? How about if I turn it like this?"
"Ow... This spot's okay, okay... Ow! It hurts, it hurts, it hurts! Let go!"
Good. Applying pressure with the ankle plantar-flexed caused significant pain when the foot was inverted. There was a localized point of tenderness at the injury site. The anterior talofibular ligament was probably the most severely sprained; the posterior talofibular ligament seemed all right, and the calcaneofibular ligament was mostly fine.
All that remained was the bruising and swelling in the soft tissue. Gretel calmed himself and pictured the anatomy of the foot in his mind. A white light slowly began to glow at his fingertips.
Repair the damaged ligaments, accelerate the local tissue metabolism, rapidly reduce the swelling, heal the injured soft tissue—
The swelling around Eliot's right ankle gradually subsided. Eliot let out a soft sigh of relief. "Ah... It doesn't hurt anymore..."
He immediately tried to pull his foot back. Gretel grabbed it.
"Wait! Let me check it again!"
He pressed, rotated, and even had Eliot hop a few times. After completing the whole routine, Gretel finally confirmed that the ankle sprain had been treated.
He sighed in relief and used the chair to push himself up from the floor. Eliot had already hopped over enthusiastically and grabbed his hand, shaking it vigorously.
"Ah, thank you so much!"
His attitude had changed completely. He was no longer condescending and bossy like when he'd first come in; now he treated Gretel as an equal. Gretel murmured his agreement, his thoughts racing.
The rule of the mage world was that knowledge never came free. So healing spells clearly weren't free, either. Eliot obviously thought Healing Potions were too expensive. Gretel should ask for something that mattered a lot to him, but would be easy for Eliot to provide—
"Mr. Eliot, you just said I was going about this the wrong way?"
"Ah—oh!"
Eliot slapped his forehead with a resounding smack. After all that examining and treatment, he'd completely forgotten why he'd come in the first place. He pointed at the bookshelves.
"I said you were going about this the wrong way! You're flipping through books one by one without any aim. You're just wasting your time, aren't you? I remember you said yesterday that you haven't even learned Magic Script?"
"That's right, Mr. Eliot." Gretel felt relieved. Thank goodness, help had finally arrived. He wouldn't have to waste his energy on novels anymore! Who knew that novel was especially heavy, too, with copper wrapped around its spine?
He earnestly asked for advice.
"I really haven't had any basic magical education. Mr. Eliot, could you please advise me on the order in which I should read these books?"
In any field, the order in which you learned the specialized subjects was very important. It was like how he'd studied medicine in his previous life: first gross anatomy, then regional anatomy; first histology and embryology and physiology, then pathology and pathophysiology.
Once he'd gotten the foundations down, he'd moved on to regional anatomy and diagnostics, followed by surgery, internal medicine, gynecology, pediatrics, infectious diseases, dermatology, neurology, psychiatry, and all the other major and minor subjects.
After studying everything once, he'd gone off to the hospital and rotated through the departments...
Trying to study advanced subjects before mastering the basics was like building a tower on sand. It didn't even take a storm; give it a little time, and the whole thing would come tumbling down.
What about magic?
Its power came from within. If he couldn't figure out the right order and just picked up any book and started reading, was he trying to get himself killed?
Gretel had already thought that once he'd looked through all the books he could read, he'd find a magic apprentice—or, even better, a mage—and ask which ones he should read first. Before he'd even worked out how to approach someone, Magister Eliot had shown up on his own. Perfect!
"The order you should read them in?"
Eliot's eyes lit up. Healing Potions were expensive, and healing spells certainly weren't free, either. But directly giving him money would feel too impersonal. Gretel had asked for advice on what order to read the books in. Perfect, just perfect.
He silently chanted a spell and swept his right hand through the air. With a whoosh, all the books flew off the shelves and hovered in the air, arranged in several semicircles around Eliot. He looked around and lightly pointed his finger.
"You, you, and you!"
A dozen or so books whizzed over to the table and piled up. Eliot waved his hand again, and the rest of the books sorted themselves by subject and flew back to the shelves. They settled into neat rows, as if no one had touched them.
Eliot pointed at the books on the table.
"You only need to read these first. Hmm, Magic Script Studies and Basic Meditation—start with those two. There's no particular order for magic runes, incantations, elements, and potions. If you get tired of studying, History of Magic, Introduction to Alchemy, and Illustrated Bestiary can be read for fun..."
Gretel's magical studies had finally begun!
Although... it didn't seem to be going very smoothly...
Please give him lots of encouragement~~~ Please collect, recommend, and review the book~~ All kinds of support are welcome~~~