Less than three minutes after the gunshot rang out, the clatter of hooves could be heard rushing this way.
At the front was Knight Captain Hant, who had advanced to Silver Knight. Behind him followed the knights from the military camp, nearly twenty of them in all, each riding a Warhorse. At a glance, they cut an imposing sight.
Claire glanced behind them and spotted Kellan following closely behind Hant. She could clearly sense that he had changed greatly from before.
He advanced to Apprentice Knight? Claire wondered.
When Kellan saw Claire looking at him, he returned an embarrassed smile.
"Dismount!" Hant shouted.
More than twenty knights dismounted their Warhorses in perfect unison. Even the sound of their boots hitting the ground merged into a single beat.
Hant stepped forward and dropped to one knee. "My lord! We rushed over as soon as we heard the gunshot."
Hearing that, Moses, who had thought reinforcements had arrived, instantly fell into despair. He stared blankly at Claire. Who would have thought this well-dressed youth was actually the viscount? He had thought Claire was merely some outsider doctor here to steal his business.
"My lord, I've been wronged!" Moses burst into tears and reached out, trying to hug Claire's leg.
"Vine Spell!" With a turn of her hand, Claire cast a basic spell. Emerald vines lashed Moses away several meters.
Moses collapsed on the ground, his entire body aching as he let out miserable cries.
Though Hant did not understand what had happened, the target was obvious. He waved a hand. "Tie that man up!"
Two knights stepped out from behind him and hauled Moses up as easily as if they were grabbing a chicken.
Claire nodded in satisfaction. "Take him away. I'll deal with him after I finish handling things here."
"Yes, my lord!"
Just as Hant was about to order the knights to take Moses away, an unwelcome voice rang out.
A chubby, fair-skinned young man with two tiny mustaches came panting over. "My lord, please wait!"
The corner of Claire's lips curled up slightly. "Baron Eugene."
Baron Eugene stopped two meters in front of Claire, took out a handkerchief to wipe the sweat from his brow, and panted heavily.
That short distance was already equivalent to half a month's exercise for him. If there had not been a commotion at his clinic, and if those knights had not arrived on horseback, he would never have run all the way over here.
"What is it, Baron Eugene?" Claire asked, pretending not to know.
"Well... could we speak somewhere private?" Baron Eugene glanced around. By now, many townspeople had gathered to watch the spectacle.
Claire followed him into a corner, as though they were about to conduct some shady deal.
"My lord, this clinic is my property. Could you spare him for my sake? I can... pay you some money." Baron Eugene spoke lightly. In his view, even if Claire did not respect his position, she should at least respect money enough to release Moses.
"What?!" Claire suddenly took several steps back and shouted, "You want me to release this quack? Do you know how many people he has treated to death?"
The surrounding townspeople immediately grew excited. This was getting interesting.
Claire continued shouting, "Do you know that his treatment methods can cause patients to die miserable deaths? Patients whose conditions were not even that serious would either die or be crippled after his treatment! I've stayed in the royal capital before, and doctors there don't treat people like this." Just as Claire said, the medical standards of this world were not weak. Nafu City was simply too backward, allowing quacks like Moses to become doctors.
Claire shouted loudly, afraid that the onlookers might not hear her. Meanwhile, Baron Eugene's face was filled with embarrassment, and he held up his hands, hoping Claire would lower her voice.
"My lord, keep it down," Baron Eugene said quietly.
Claire nearly laughed inside as she demanded, "Baron Eugene! You want me to let him go. Did you instruct him to do this, treating human lives like dirt for your own profit?"
By then, Baron Eugene was sweating even more than he had while running. Sweat streamed down his neck and nearly soaked his collar. Whenever he looked at the surrounding crowd, he felt as though they were about to devour him alive.
"No, no! It's not like that!" Baron Eugene immediately distanced himself from Moses. "I haven't visited this clinic in a long time. I had no idea he was doing such things. Fortunately, my lord discovered that he was a quack. Otherwise, he would have kept fooling me!"
Moses's face turned ashen at those words. Even Baron Eugene had abandoned him. Who else could save him now?
"My lord! I support you! Hurry and take this quack away!" Baron Eugene urged anxiously, afraid that Moses might expose him.
Once Moses was taken away, he could simply find another doctor. Whether that doctor actually knew medicine did not matter. After all, this was the only clinic in all of Nafu City. Those commoners could not afford to spend Gold Coins to have Church of Light priests use Healing Technique on them, so they could only come to his clinic.
"I knew Baron Eugene wasn't that sort of person. It seems I wronged you just now." Claire smiled and patted his shoulder approvingly.
Baron Eugene forced a smile as well, though he had no idea how many times he cursed Claire in his heart. He was no fool; he could tell that Claire had done this deliberately.
With a wave of her hand, Claire had Knight Captain Hant lead his men in sealing up the illegal clinic.
Eugene immediately became anxious again. "My lord, what are you doing?"
"Confiscating it. Nothing in here meets the standards a proper hospital should have, and all the money that quack extorted must be seized as well." Claire smiled.
"What? Does Baron Eugene have a problem with that?"
Baron Eugene was practically grinding his teeth to pieces. This clinic accounted for one-tenth of his income. How could he possibly accept having it confiscated just like that?
And he had not even collected this year's earnings yet. There were at least five or six hundred Gold Coins inside. That was right—monopolies were just that profitable.
However, after glancing at the knights around him, he could only swallow his anger.
He said through clenched teeth, "No problem."
"Good." Claire turned toward the onlooking crowd and shouted, "From now on, any hospital or clinic that wishes to open must register with the Baronial Manor! Without sufficient medical skill, no one will be permitted to open one. Otherwise, what happens when quacks like this start treating people to death?"
"Long live the viscount!"
"Long live the viscount!"
The townspeople outside raised their arms and cheered, thoroughly excited.
But to Baron Eugene, those words sounded as though they were aimed directly at him. Without this clinic, he could still open another one elsewhere in Nafu City, but Claire's declaration had completely cut off that path.
After sealing the place, Claire left several knights behind to guard it and prevent anyone from damaging it.
Claire mounted her horse and had Regan, who had just arrived, help Yuna and her mother into the carriage.
"Let's go! Back to the Baronial Manor!" Claire called out.
As she spoke, she glanced at Baron Eugene behind her, his fists clenched tightly. The hatred in his eyes was unmistakable.
But so what? Claire did not care. If directly moving against Baron Eugene would not have provoked the collective resistance of all the nobles and wealthy merchants in Nafu City, disrupting the city's normal operations, she would have had him arrested today as well.
There was no need to rush the cleansing of the nobles. It had to be done gradually.
Slowly, like boiling a frog in warm water, she would cut off all their claws throughout Nafu City before they realized it. Then it would be time to move against them.
After helping Yuna's mother into a guest room, Claire turned and entered the basement.
Basic Healing Potion could not cure this kind of illness; it was for external injuries. For diseases that developed within the body, the best treatment was the Church of Light's Holy Light Healing. They made their living through healing techniques, followed by healing magic from the other elements.
But for simple sepsis, there was no need to ask those church priests for help. As a successor of communism, Claire could not stand listening to priests constantly mutter things like "Believe in my lord" in her ear.
After Claire entered the basement, Yuna waited anxiously outside. From time to time, she ran to the basement entrance to look inside, then rushed back to check on her mother in the sickbed.
Half an hour later, Claire emerged holding a tube of transparent medicine. This was the famed "penicillin" from her previous life. If that name was unfamiliar, perhaps its other name was more famous—"penicillium," which often appeared in wartime dramas.
It was an antibiotic that directly destroyed bacterial cell walls and was extremely effective against diseases like sepsis. It could cause allergic reactions without a skin test, but the chances were extremely low, almost nonexistent. There was another drawback: large-scale use could increase bacterial resistance, making penicillin less effective. That had been a bloody lesson in her previous life.
But Claire had no plans to use it on a large scale. She only needed to cure Yuna's mother.
After administering the medicine, Claire gave Yuna half a day off so she could take good care of her mother.
The recommendations are coming next week. I hope everyone can lend their support. Thank you!
Before you continue