Testing the Limits

"Kraft, Kraft? Are you in there?"

Kraft was jolted awake by a rapid pounding on the door. On reflex, he lifted his forehead from the desk, where it had been pressed into the edge, and reached for a phone that wasn't there, afraid he'd missed an important call.

The hilt of the sword at his waist brought him back to reality. His mind came around from the night-shift scene in his dream, and he realized he hadn't been on call in ages. Nor was the person pounding on the door a frantic colleague.

The back of his black robe was warm from the sun. It seemed to be afternoon, so he hadn't been asleep long—not even four hours.

But the fatigue had been swept away, and his drained energy had recovered. Rubbing his eyes, he stood up, still adjusting to the sudden switch from a dark dream to glaring sunlight.

He'd dreamed that he'd discovered all sorts of strange things and used them to recreate a modern hospital here. He'd been working the night shift just now. Dreams really were illogical. Otherwise, why would he still be on the night shift after opening a hospital?

Thank goodness someone had woken him. Otherwise, he'd have had to continue that unpleasant dream.

"I'm here," Kraft called as he opened the door. "Lucius?"

It was Lucius who'd been pounding on the door. His brown hair was a little mussed, and he smelled faintly of beer. Kraft frowned at the sight.

"Didn't you go drinking at the tavern?" Kraft covered his nose. Lucius didn't look like someone who'd come back to find him; he looked hungover.

Lucius paid no mind to Kraft's disgust and said with a smile, "I didn't want to disturb your sleep, but Lis woke up. I thought you'd want to see her, no matter what."

"Lis woke up? So soon?"

Kraft had the disorienting feeling that time had slipped. He'd woken up to find the whole world a giant leap ahead, while he alone had been left behind.

Lucius looked at him in confusion, then suddenly understood and burst out laughing. "You didn't think it was still yesterday afternoon, did you?"

"Yesterday? I slept through the whole day?!"

Kraft jolted fully awake. "How's Lis? Any complications? Why didn't you wake me yesterday?"

His first thought was that he might have missed the best time to treat a complication. Then he remembered that he still hadn't finished her medical record or told Gris more about her postoperative care.

"She couldn't be doing better. Gris wants to thank you in person." Lucius smoothed his brown hair, combing it neatly to either side.

"Where are they? Let's go now. I hope Gris hasn't fed her anything."

Since Kraft hadn't woken up the day before, everyone in the Observation Classroom had followed his instructions to the letter and left Lis where she was, letting the girl sleep there for the night.

Fortunately, someone hadn't completely forgotten about the father and daughter. Liston had managed to break away from the celebrations, found the blanket Lucius had brought, and laid it beneath the patient. He and Gris had both waited with her until she woke that day.

"I don't know how I can ever thank you." Gris, who had been forcing himself to stay calm all along, finally couldn't hold back his tears when he saw his daughter awake. "I have some savings. If that's not enough, my tavern is worth quite a bit, too."

"That won't be necessary, really." Kraft couldn't bear to listen. He handed Gris a piece of clean cloth left over from the day before so he could wipe his tears. The scene made Kraft look like a crooked back-alley doctor who'd swindled a single parent out of their savings with an exorbitant bill.

Gris reminded the part of Kraft's soul rooted in this world of his grandfather. When it came to young Kraft, his grandfather could show a care and attentiveness that didn't fit his brawny image, even if his way of expressing it wasn't always the best.

Kraft had seen this kind of feeling in many parents: their worry for their children, their wholehearted devotion, their willingness to trade anything for their children's safety and health.

That was why illness never affected only the patient. It reached an entire family, bringing suffering to many more people and taking its toll on their emotional and financial well-being, among other things both expected and unexpected.

"Relax. As for the money..." Kraft faltered. It wasn't because he was waiting for Gris to name a good price. He'd just suddenly realized he had no idea what to charge.

He knew about medical fees in this world about as much as he knew what went into the herbal decoctions at the clinic. He knew herbal decoctions involved water and that medical fees involved money. Beyond that, he was completely clueless.

When the herbalist from Wood Town visited the castle to treat someone, the expenses came out of the family's treasury. Old Wood reviewed them, Anderson did the calculations. What did Kraft have to do with any of that? He'd never dealt with it.

"...Anyway, there's no need to worry about it. Let me examine Lis first. It's the first day, so the dressing on her wound needs to be changed." He hurried to change the subject. As he walked over to Lis, he took the chance to seek help from Lucius and Liston while Gris couldn't see.

Lucius gave him a blank shake of the head. He was still a student; his daily life consisted of reading and doing experiments with professors. He didn't know about this sort of thing.

Liston, on the other hand, was as dependable as ever. After a moment's thought, he pulled his hand from his sleeve and held up five fingers.

Kraft nodded to show he understood, then bent down to look at Lis.

"Hello, little Lis. Does it still hurt?"

Lis watched the black-robed man warily. She still remembered the black-robed stranger feeding her a mouthful of strange liquid the day before. She'd closed her eyes, then opened them again, only to discover a faintly painful wound on her belly.

"Lis, be good." Gris crouched beside her and took her hand, helping her feel much safer. "Tell the doctor if anything feels wrong."

"Here." Lis pointed to the wound, then continued staring at Kraft with a guarded expression.

Kraft glanced at her face. The flushed, pained look of acute illness had faded. She had enough energy to wonder who he was, so the pain was probably just normal postoperative soreness.

He removed the bandage around Lis's waist and lifted the cloth covering the wound to take a look. There was only a little blood seepage, and the wound seemed to be healing well. It wasn't red or swollen. He hoped it was just as healthy inside.

"It looks good for now, but don't think this is over."

He replaced the cloth over Lis's wound and secured it with strips of linen. Unfortunately, he had nothing he could apply directly to disinfect it. He'd been without Povidone-iodine solution for who knew how many days. He silently missed it.

He really ought to figure out how to distill liquor. Then he'd have high-proof alcohol for disinfection.

"Normally, she should stay here for a few more days under observation, but the Academy may not be the best place for a patient to recover." Kraft rubbed the blanket laid over the stone platform. One night was fine, but two nights might be enough to cause trouble. "So it's better to take her home. For now, only give her thin liquids."

"As for the wound, it'll take six or seven days to heal on the outside. Keep her from getting out of bed as much as possible. I'll come back then to remove the stitches."

"Oh, right, the fee." Kraft slapped his forehead. Liston's five fingers flashed through his mind. "Five silver coins?"

He'd reached that figure by combining Liston's gesture with what a visitor from another world thought medical care should cost. Five Kingdom Silver Coins seemed a little steep to him. Depending on the circumstances, one of those official coins could be worth two or three privately minted black-silver coins.

He hadn't specified what kind of silver coin, either. If the price was too high, Gris could decide for himself how many of the five were Kingdom Silver Coins.

Gris reacted differently from what Kraft had expected. He stood frozen, making sure Kraft wasn't joking.

He opened his mouth, but in the end said nothing. He wore the respectful expression Kraft had seen many times over the past two days, though there was something different about it this time.

He took five Kingdom Silver Coins from his purse and handed them to Kraft. "From now on, everything you order at my tavern is on the house. As long as I, Gris, am alive, that offer stands."

Kraft, who'd somehow acquired a lifetime meal voucher, watched Gris carry Lis out of the classroom until they disappeared from sight. The man's eyes were still red as he left.

"Tsk." Liston made an ambiguous sound behind him. "What do you think Saint Simon would do if he came back to life and met you?"

"Hm?" Kraft realized he might have misunderstood what Liston meant earlier, but that was quite a leap. Since he'd barely read the Holy Scripture, all he could manage was a simple question.

"He'd have to find a way to get rid of you for unfair competition." Lucius covered his face. "Go to the Church, find a Priest, and ask for a few words of prayer, and they'll still charge you several Kingdom Silver Coins."

"I thought it was free?"

"They claim to offer blessings. How could it be free? Don't tell me you've never been to a Church." Liston's voice practically reeked of resentment and jealousy.

Kraft really hadn't been to Church much. His grandfather had only respected religion when the Church had some authority over him. The local part of Kraft's soul hadn't grown up in a particularly religious household, either.

The otherworldly part was the kind of "practical believer" who danced on the edge of the stake. He treated faith like going to the toilet: when things got urgent, he muttered a few words, then promptly forgot all about it afterward. More contemptible than a Heretic.

"I really didn't know. But what does that have to do with us?" Kraft brought the conversation back around.

"Actually, I meant five gold coins."

"Are you insane?" Kraft was utterly shocked. That was a whole new understanding of money.

There were hardly any privately minted gold coins, because the Westminster Gold Coin was jointly minted by the king and several great nobles. No one else had the means to mint coins from gold.

That meant all gold coins were understood to be Westminster Gold Coins. Their diameter was less than half that of the standard silver coin, and they were only a third as thick. They were about the size of a five-mao coin from his old world.

Despite its tiny surface, the coin still bore the tower of Westminster Castle. It even featured the side and edge decorations, an innovative way to stop people from shaving off the rim and passing the coin off as full value.

One Westminster Gold Coin was worth seven Kingdom Silver Coins. Gold coins were generally used only for large transactions and didn't circulate much at markets. This bizarre exchange rate hadn't always been the case. Changes in the price of precious metals had shifted it from the original ratio of one to five.

"A treatment method centuries ahead of its time, the only one of its kind, and it used a medicine I've never even seen before." Liston held up five fingers. "Two lecturers set aside a whole day to do it themselves. Thirty-five silver coins wouldn't be unreasonable, would it? Gris isn't poor. His savings could easily cover it."

"Then this operation wouldn't be accessible to the public. Hardly anyone could afford it."

"Didn't you say it was the last of your Family Secret Medicine? How could it be accessible to the public?" Liston had already doubted that claim, and he hadn't expected Kraft to change his tune so quickly.

"I've changed my mind. Never mind where it came from. It's not the last bit anymore." Kraft looked in the direction Gris and his daughter had left, as if he could see them through the walls. "It's just a little dangerous. Let's observe Lis for a while before we decide."

"So we might get to perform operations like this again?" Liston was just as excited about the idea as Lucius.

"Maybe. If nothing goes wrong, it might not be just us, either. I'll organize the key points of this case relating to Human Anatomy and include them in future lessons."

He said they should keep observing, but anyone could tell Lis's condition had satisfied him. He was already preparing for more operations. He just needed one last push to make up his mind completely.

Kraft packed up and left the classroom, with Lucius following behind. The two returned to the professor's room.

"I want to talk about the Black Fluid." Kraft closed the door. They could discuss the surgical procedure openly, but the Black Fluid still had to be discussed in private.

Lucius wasn't surprised. "I knew you'd realize its value sooner or later and change your mind."

"What about Professor—"

"When the Professor returns, just say I gave you the idea. The matter's already settled. No matter what, Professor Morrison's position as the discoverer of the Black Fluid isn't going to change."

"No. Put it another way: you only suggested using the Black Fluid for surgery. I decided to go through with it. If anything goes wrong, Professor Calman will come to me first." Kraft stopped Lucius from taking all the blame.

They'd already put one foot over the edge of the Professor's confidentiality requirements. If Lucius bore the main responsibility, it wouldn't be good for his relationship of trust with the Professor. Kraft had better take the blame himself.

"Once the Professor brings back their findings, they'll decide that we can announce them. Then we can reveal the real ingredients of the diluted solution at the same time, without violating the confidentiality requirement." Kraft thought the reasoning sounded good. At worst, he could say he'd conducted the experiment at Professor Calman's request.

Going straight from discovery to application was exactly the sort of thing Professor Calman would be glad to see.

"So we can start performing lots of operations?" Lucius was just as enthusiastic about this as Liston.

"Not even close. We need to observe Lis for at least half a month, and the longer the better." Kraft gave him what he considered a reasonably conservative timeline. "And you'll be included in the observation, too. We'll check you once a day from now on, and I'll keep written records myself."

Lis's case had gradually convinced him that using the Black Fluid was a good idea, but he hadn't lost his mind over it.

"If nothing goes wrong, we can start accepting a small number of patients who can only be treated with surgery and keep observing them. We may still be working on a very small scale by the time the Professor returns."

That was Kraft's plan: expand cautiously and gradually. By the time the Professor returned, Kraft would have completed the initial validation. After reaching an agreement with Calman, they could expand their work and help as many people as possible.