Doctors

When Professor Armitage found Dr. Morgan, there were already three people in the room where Dr. Morgan was.

Two people, including Dr. Morgan, were sitting in chairs chatting, while a third person was lying in bed.

The person chatting with Dr. Morgan was a man of similar age to Dr. Morgan.

He was shorter than Dr. Morgan, had black hair, wore white doctor's clothes, glasses, and a noticeable scar on his right cheek that ran from the corner of his mouth to his temple.

The person lying on the bed had an ugly face, with an eerie green tinge to his cheeks and neck. His eyes were half-open, but lifeless, clearly indicating that he was unconscious.

Upon seeing Professor Armitage, the two men brought out the third chair in the room.

"No, I don't need it," Professor Armitage said. "I just came to check on his condition."

Professor Armitage looked at the person on the bed, as did the other two.

Dr. Morgan shook his head. "There's nothing we can do. His illness seems irreversible. We can only try to slow its progression as much as possible."

Another person said, "His condition is very unstable right now, not only physically, but also mentally."

The man opened a drawer on one side, revealing something gleaming coldly inside.

A brand new automatic pistol.

"Is this Robert Aoun's pistol?" Professor Armitage asked.

Robert Aoun is the patient's name.

"Yes," Professor Morgan replied, "Because of my drug, he's rarely lucid. But one night he woke up and suddenly said urgently that he wanted his pistol. I thought he had hidden something in the pistol, so I handed it to him—thankfully Jack had already removed all the bullets beforehand."

"Dr. Morgan doesn't like guns, so he overlooked that," Jack said. "I was supposed to be sleeping at the time, otherwise Robert wouldn't have even touched the gun. The first thing Robert did after getting his gun was to put the muzzle in his mouth."

Professor Armitage thought, "Shoot myself."

The bullet enters through the mouth and instantly tears through the brainstem; the suicide victim experiences no Affliction whatsoever.

Robert Aoun himself had already given up hope for his fate.

Dr. Morgan continued, "To prevent him from harming himself while conscious, I increased the sedative content in the medication."

Jack stood up, walked over to Robert Orn, and pointed out Orn's eyes to Professor Armitage.

That eye was far too large for a human to see.

His two eyes take up almost a quarter of the area of Robert Orn's face.

The reason he kept his eyes half-open was simply because his eyelids were too small compared to his eyes, making it impossible for them to close completely.

"New symptoms," Professor Armitage said.

"In fact," Jack said, "When I first met him two years ago, I already noticed that his eyes were bigger than other people's."

"But back then, he was still within the normal range. My friends and I often joked about him because of this, saying he had eyes that were popular with women."

Jack shrugged. "It's only been two days since he was sent here, and his womanizing eyes" have already become so big they're almost terrifying."

"Is there no other way?" Professor Armitage asked.

Jack shook his head. "As a surgeon, there's nothing more I can do until you agree to let me cut off his mutated body."

What if we cut those bodies off?

Jack chuckled twice. "There's no difference. His mutation will continue. It's just that if you kill him after that, his family will only think that his organs were stolen by a heartless doctor, not that he's become Monster."

The joke wasn't funny, and Jack quickly realized it. He shrugged. "You know, people like me sometimes lose their reverence for life."

"I know about these kinds of jokes," Professor Armitage said, "I just don't really like them."

"Whether you're a doctor or an investigator, your symptoms are normal," Dr. Morgan told Jack.

He then looked at Professor Armitage: "Pharmacology is useless too. Neither ordinary potions nor any magical potions I know of will help his symptoms. All I can do is prepare sedatives for him every day."

"How old is he?" Professor Armitage asked.

"He's a bit younger than me," Jack said. "He should be twenty-five this year. He just finished his studies and wanted to go home for a while, but he had an accident on the way."

"He's still very young," Professor Armitage said.

"He's still very young," Jack replied.

"What will he eventually become?" Professor Armitage asked again.

"Judging from the current trend, it'll grow scales and turn into a fish head," Jack said. "What a pity, I remember him saying he hated fish."

The three remained silent for several seconds; the atmosphere in the room was almost like a moment of silence in mourning for the patient.

Finally, Professor Armitage brought up another matter. "Elizabeth found a dead Great Night Hawk in Dunwich."

"The Great Night Hawk?" Dr. Morgan asked.

"Yes, the Great Night Hawk. Elizabeth said the Night Hawk was as tall as a person, and it had been hidden in the cellar with a gunshot wound to the abdomen."

"Gunshot wound—what gun?" Jack asked. "A machine gun, or is there a rifle squad?"

Professor Armitage shook his head. "Elizabeth said she only saw a bullet hole."

"It's also possible that it only hit once," Jack said. "Unless the Great Night Hawk runs right into my line of fire, I'm not confident I can hit it with a pistol or rifle."

Jack was undoubtedly the best shot of the three, and if he said that, then Dunwich probably did indeed have a rifle squad.

None of the three doubted that the Great Night Hawk was killed by an Extraordinary Being.

"It's a pity Professor Reik isn't here," Dr. Morgan said. "Otherwise, I doubt this news would have even reached us."

He looked at Jack beside him. "Hey, I wonder if I could have half a day off so I could go to Dunwich?"

"Why can't it be me?" Jack asked. "Am I not the more suitable choice?"

"Perhaps," Dr. Morgan replied, "But I have a friend in Dunwich, and I plan to visit him on my way, and you don't even know where Dunwich is."

Dr. Morgan didn't know where Dunwich, but he did have friends there.

Jack shrugged and asked Professor Armitage about the extent of the Great Night Hawk's carcass's decomposition.

"Perhaps ten days," Professor Armitage said. "This is my estimation based on Elizabeth's description."

"In that case," Jack said, glancing at Robert O'Neill on the bed, "Let's wait two more days. We can't get anything new anyway."

Dr. Morgan agreed to his proposal; now, Robert Aoun is the most important person here.