Magi Craft Meister

Magi Craft Meister 634

18　King Klein’s Treatment Arc

19-21　Support

The next morning, after having breakfast, Elsa was waiting to be summoned.

However, after 9 o’clock, and even after 10 o’clock, no one came to pick her up.

Even if she wanted to leave the room, there were four guards in the hallway, and Elsa was forbidden to go out on her own.

Then, when it was nearly 11:00 AM, the door finally opened.

“Your name was Elsa, right? Come on. I’ll take you to my father.”

The one who came to pick her up was the First Prince Edmond.

“Y-Yes.”

Elsa stood up slightly nervously. She just couldn’t get used to Edmond’s crude behavior.

“Hmph, get ready quickly.”

“I-I’m a-already ready…”

“Then let’s go. Come.”

Prince Edmond turned around and started walking down the corridor without looking back. Elsa and Edgar chased after him.

Following the same route as the day before, Elsa arrived at Alois III’s bedroom.

“…Yesterday, right after you gave him treatment, my father’s condition seemed to have improved a bit. But this morning, his complexion was the same as before. Do something about it. …Please.”

At that time, Elsa perceived a faint hint of sorrow in Prince Edmond’s face as he spoke bluntly.

However, all that Elsa had to focus on at the moment was to examine her patient, which she would now do in full awareness of the possibility of a parasite’s presence.

“’Diagnose’.”

The area to be examined was, of course, the liver. However, Elsa didn’t find anything in the liver. Thinking that that shouldn’t be, she tried again..

“’Diagnose’ ’Diagnose’ ’Diagnose’.”

This time, she examined the region in more detail, sorting it out into sections.

“…What’s this…?”

It wasn’t in the liver exactly, but she found something near the gallbladder under it, inside the bile duct..

“’Diagnose’.”

Then she did another close examination specifically focused on the bile duct itself.

“…There it is. I found it…”

The thing she found had a flat, elliptical shape about 10 mm in size. It was definitely a parasite.

“Elsa, were you able to learn something!?”

Prince Edmond notices that Elsa’s facial expression had changed during the examination. He grabbed Elsa by the shoulder and hurriedly asked her about it.

“Y-Yeah… I found a parasite in His Majesty’s gallbladder. This is probably the cause of his affliction.”

“What? A ‘parasite’? What in the world do you mean by that!?”

However, Prince Edmond was confused by Elsa’s explanation as he didn’t seem to be familiar with the term “parasite”.

“You! You better not be trying to play smart…”

As he started to say that, Edmond noticed Elsa’s serious face and stopped himself.

“…I’m sorry. I said too much. You really are examining my father’s condition in all seriousness.”

Prince Edmond apologized and let go of Elsa’s shoulder.

“… Parasites are small creatures that nest inside the human body.”

“…Hmm. There are blood-sucking insects in the mountains… are these ‘parasites’ something like those?”

“Yes. That would be a fine way to describe them. So, these “insects” that nested inside His Majesty’s body have been eating away at his insides and releasing toxins, which caused His Majesty’s health to deteriorate.”

“So, can it be cured!?”

“…”

Elsa knew that removing parasites lodged inside the bile duct required surgery.

But she wasn’t sure she had the ability to do that.

“Please, let me talk to my brother, Jin Nidou.”

＊　　　＊　　　＊

The time was noon.

Elsa was talking to Jin.

To be precise, Hanna, the Third Princess Lieschen, the First Prince Edmond, the Second Prince Arthur, and Chancellor Powell were all present as well.

After a light lunch, all of them gathered in what could be mistaken for a tea party when seen from afar, but the topic of their conversation hardly suited a tea party.

“Those of you who were at the Technology Expo held in the Shouro Empire will already be familiar with this.”

After such an introduction, Jin placed a Mini Smith on the table.

“NICE TO MEET YOU ALL.”

“…Whoa!”

Except for Princess Lieschen, who had seen them at the Technology Expo, everyone else from the Klein Kingdom was wide-eyed in awe. Jin continued.

“These Mini Smiths are capable of performing movements with a level of precision that is several times that of humans.”

Actually, they were dozens of times more precise than humans, but Jin wanted to simplify his explanation as much as possible.

“…The Mini Smiths can use a conjunction of the ‘Paralyze’ and ‘Schmerzmittel’ followed by a treatment with ‘Sterilization’ in order to take out the parasites in the affected area in a matter of a few seconds.”

Elsa then took over Jin’s explanation.

“Then, as the parasites are being extracted, we’ll use ‘Völlig Genesung’ to heal and close the wound. That’s the outline of the treatment.”

“…”

Everyone else was completely silent. Hanna seemed to understand about only half of it all, and had a slightly confused look on her face.

“…I see, from what I’ve heard so far, it seems like it could work. But is there some kind of track record for a treatment like that?”

This was Prince Edmond. His concern was understandable. He wouldn’t allow the king of a country to be subject to such an invasive treatment without some kind of proof that it had worked in the past.

Since it’s basically the same procedure used to take out the “Agujas” that were controlling the demons in the northern continent, it seemed that there would be no problem with this procedure.

However, this would be the first time for Elsa herself to do this kind of treatment, and above all, Jin didn’t want to talk about the demons at this moment.

The actual surgery would be performed by the Mini Smiths, but it was no wonder that those who have this kingdom’s best interest at heart would want to see some kind of proof.

“…Then, I have a proposal.”

This time it was Prince Arthur who spoke up.

“I’m sure there are several people in the kingdom who need similar treatments. How about we try this proposed treatment on them first, and if there are no problems, then we shall allow our father to undergo this treatment. What do you think”

As far as Jin was concerned, this was the same as asking him to treat those people as lab rats before risking the king’s life, and while that wasn’t exactly what it actually was, this was an extremely natural way of thinking in this world.

“Yeah, that’s good! Good idea, Arthur.”

“…Brother, please try to be a little more considerate.”

“Hmph, it is our subjects who should be considerate. And those of us who stand above should be the ones taking the decisions.”

“…Ahem.”

Chancellor Powell cleared his throat in a very deliberate manner in order to throw cold water onto the exchange between the brothers.

“…Then, is it okay if we give Miss Elsa a list of people for her to examine, and have her treat them if they have a similar illness?”

Although they were the First and Second Princes, the owner of the position of Crown Prince had yet to be decided, so the Chancellor had the final say in this matter as he was higher in the chain of hierarchy.

“Understood.”

Elsa nodded in agreement..

“Then, we will search for suitable patients, so I’ll ask you to please wait here until we find them, Miss Elsa.”

Then the chancellor turned to Jin.

“Is it okay if I ask Her Highness Lieschen to keep Lord Jin company in the meantime?”

“Yes, I’ll take responsibility for Jin and Hanna.”

“…Thank you very much. Then, that’ll be all for now, everyone.”

With that, the unofficial meeting that could affect the fate of the Klein Kingdom was over.

“Miss Elsa, would you and Lord Jin honor us by staying here with us until we find a suitable patient?”

There was no objection to that either.

At any rate, now that there finally were some good prospects for the king’s treatment, the chancellor’s face had finally started to regain its color, which it seemed to have been deprived of for quite a long time.

“Great job, Elsa.”

The first thing Jin did after both of them returned to the guest rooms of the royal villa was to show appreciation for Elsa’s efforts.

“…It was all thanks to your advice, Brother Jin. Thank you..”

Elsa thanked Jin in return.

“If you hadn’t suggested the possibility of parasites…”

“Yeah, I’m glad I improved Edgar before we came here.”

Just being able to talk to each other through Laojun is a big advantage.

“Will you be okay doing the surgery?”

“Yeah. I’ll be just covering the wound, so.”

The Mini Smiths would be in charge of the difficult part of the work, and could definitely be trusted with it thanks to the experiences shared with them in the Demon Territory.

The rest was a matter of getting a track record going as a means for them to gain the trust of the kingdom’s people.

“I’ll do my best to help those people too.”

“Yeah, give it your all.”

“You can do this, Big Sis.”

Both Jin and Hanna supported Elsa’s determination.