“Huh? There are some tattered pages since I’ve been reading that book a lot. I don’t mind giving you a new one.”
“No! I like this one! I want to read this copy!”
“Please keep your voice down. You’ll aggravate your injury. If you want it that much, I’ll give it to you. You’re acting kind of strange, but whatever.”
Yeah! I’ve won Rail’s favorite book!
It didn’t pain me too much knowing that there were other copies available. Nevertheless, I have received his precious book. To redeem myself, I should read more so we could have a discussion.
“I’ve only skimmed through the book, but I’m especially interested in what’s written in the last part.”
“Could it be the one about self-treatment?”
“Yes, that’s the one. It’s interesting because it was written with the patient’s point of view instead of the doctor’s point of view.”
“The discussion in that chapter is pretty tough; I like that chapter a lot too.”
According to Rail, there existed different opinions on how much emphasis should be applied to certain points for treatments, even among physicians.
“In my opinion, similar to what’s written in this book, the most important thing to consider are the patients themselves. Different people with the same illness respond very differently to the same treatment. I think this is caused by the different will and vitality. Take your injury, for example, Kururi. Normally, you’d be dead.”
Don’t say I’d be dead straight to my face. That was horrifying.
“But I think you’d survive. Because Miss Eliza was waiting, I believe you’d regain your consciousness. That’s your will. On top of that, your vitality is incredible.
“I see, I see.”
“Each person’s will could change depending on the situation, but what about vitality? If you only consider the physiques like sturdy or slender body, you’re only paying attention to the physical power. But humans have another kind of power, right? That’s right, even people who can’t use magic still have that mana lying dormant inside their bodies. I started to think that maybe vitality doesn’t solely depend on physical power, but also magical power. The book suggested that by combining your own mana and treatment magic to continue healing from inside the body would speed up the healing process even more.”
“Wow —. That’s kind of amazing.”
“But of course, there are opposing opinions as well. They claim that treatments should only be done by physicians. This book fully supports self-treatment, as do I. I mean, my opinion is heavily influenced by this book.”
“People have their own opinions, which are interesting. I’ll support you, Rail. So teach me self-treatment magic, too”
“You just want to try the magic out since you have spare time now, don’t you?”
“… No, that is not true.”
“You paused! And you’re using a proper statement?!”
“I have no such intentions, so would you please teach me right away?”
“Are you for real? Fine. But I’ll only teach the basic.”
“Yes, I understand.”
Rail didn’t seem willing to teach me deep knowledge about self-treatment since this injury might appear to already be on its way to a complete recovery.
We started with mana manipulation. Since I already knew how to do that, the explanation was omitted. The following step was to manipulate that mana and wrap it over the wounded part.
“Would something this simple work?”
“It’s not an established treatment yet, so I only let you do the one that I think would work. Besides, to be honest, the sophisticated ones have a lot of uncertain points. As long as uncertainties remain, I can’t let patients perform it. I want to resolve these uncertain points- enough to want to meet the author of this book in person and have a discussion about them.”
While Rail was talking, I could feel something getting pleasantly warmer around my abdomen. Yup, it was effective.
“Since you’re so curious, why not meet with the author?”
“I don’t think that could happen. The book only stated the name of the author, but I don’t know who it is or whether he’s still alive.”
“That’s a shame, even though the author is someone who possessed wonderful knowledge.”
“I agree. Time and again, extremely wonderful people have often disappeared without ever going public. Ah —, the author of this book is someone called Moran, he must be quite a sage. No matter how much I looked up his detailed information, nothing popped up.”
Where had you been looking it up? That name sounded familiar somehow.
“Could it be old man Moran?”
“Huh?”
“When you said Moran, are you talking about old man Moran?”
“What?”
“Like I said, could the Moran you’re referring to be old man Moran?”
“… Do you know him?”
“I don’t know if it’s the same person, but there was a man named Moran who used to work in the library of Helan territory. He had profound knowledge and taught me a lot. Old man Moran also assisted during the dispelling of the curse on Helan territory.
“….”
“What’s with that petrified look? The name is the same, but I don’t know if it’s the same person.”
“Where is that person now?”
“I don’t know. Old man Moran saved both Eliza and me from that great disaster and treated our wounds in that cocoon. I don’t know where he went after that.”
“Are you going to look for him?”
“Even if you ask me, I could only remember old man Moran when I regained my consciousness in this bed. Old man Moran was mourning his beloved, but had fulfilled his promise. He may no longer come back to Helan territory.”
“Is that true? That’s a somewhat lonely story.”
“No doubt. I was longing for him like my own grandpa … where on earth did he go?”
Rail was looking for the author of the book, while I only wanted to meet him to convey my gratitude.
Even though some people waited for old man Moran to return, I didn’t hear his name mentioned even once while I was having amnesia. Maybe he was not in this world anymore ….
Once I could leave this treatment room, should I have Mr. Lotson look for old mana Moran? Or would old man Moran want to be left alone? I guess we could confirm once we found him.
“Oh yeah, Rail. I had something to tell you.”
“What is it?”
“I applied some mana on my wound, right? Just now.”
“Yeah, that’s right.”
“Somehow, it feels like the wound has disappeared.”
“That can’t … be … huh? Wait a second. How?! How come the wound had disappeared?!”
Rail lost his composure as if the world had turned upside down. He drew on all the knowledge he possessed while inspecting my wound, but it seemed to have healed completely.
As I thought, my vitality was like that of a cockroach … I should compare it to a weed instead. My vitality was as strong as a weed!