Chapter 27 – How to Take Responsibility

For this operation to succeed, several assumptions had to hold true.

Had the captured elves been bound hand and foot, in addition to being gagged, the plan would have been impossible from the start.

It would not have been strange for them to be restrained in such a manner. If that had been the case, swapping clothes would have been out of the question.

But on this point, the assessment was that they would not be.

If the prisoners were in manacles and fetters, their captors would have to see to their food, drink, and other bodily needs.

For a single day, perhaps, but when captors and captives numbered the same for several days on end, they would surely want to avoid such pointless effort.

And in fact, that was exactly the case.

This was because Aspi and the others were powerless elven girls, a weakness that worked in their favor, as their captors believed gags alone were sufficient.

Furthermore, a bit of groundwork had been laid to ensure success.

When Dikes had conveyed the plan, he had also said, “At least spare my daughter,” as a feint.

By hearing this, their captors were led to believe, As long as we have the daughter, we’re fine. The others have no value.

But in the end, it was all up to chance.

Had the enemy been more level-headed, or had there been any misstep, the plan would have failed and ended as a farce.

The self-deprecating thought, This was the only kind of plan I could come up with, was correct. At the same time, the thought, This was the only kind of plan that could have worked, was also correct.

And, as a result…

Etacarina, a handmaiden, had suffered a fatal wound.

※

A great number of elves had poured into the Forest Chief’s manor, which until just a moment ago had been occupied.

The handmaidens’ families and lovers celebrated the safe return of their loved ones.

Dikes’s subordinates, for their part, were overjoyed to confirm Aspi’s well-being.

“Aspi…!”

“Father!”

The reunion of the Forest Chief and his daughter.

In the midst of this tragedy, it was a single moment of salvation.

The father and daughter, though frail, embraced with all their might, celebrating their safety.

But it could not end with just that.

“Father… Etacarina! That Lizardman… She took my place!”

“I see. So it was Etacarina…”

Though unavoidable, it was a cruel outcome.

The elven physicians who had been on standby were already examining Etacarina, but their faces were etched with despair, unable to even begin treatment.

She was still breathing, however faintly, but she would likely die soon.

There was nothing Dikes, the Forest Chief, could do. All that was left was to offer his thanks.

“Etacarina… I am sorry. You did your utmost. That you have died in agony is my responsibility.”

“Ah, ah! N-No, not at all!”

“Truly, truly… I am pathetic! If only I had been more capable, this never would have happened to you!”

He pulled away from his daughter, knelt before Etacarina, and confessed his remorse.

What fault had she committed to deserve such a fate?

No, rather, how many residents had been sacrificed because of this affair’s “thoughtless fool”?

It was precisely because it was all over that he was seized by self-reproach.

“Pardon the intrusion… and my delay.”

In the central part of the Forest Chief’s manor—the very room where Aspi and the others had been confined for days—Gaikaku appeared.

He seemed to have been running and was slightly out of breath.

“You must be Lady Aspi, daughter of Lord Dikes. I am Gaikaku Hikume, Commander of the Conjurer Knights. I was dispatched to this land on the orders of the Supreme Knight Commander. I am the one who devised this operation… and one of those responsible.”

“A Knight Commander?! Please, you must help Etacarina! She took my place—please, save her!”

Still clad in the handmaiden’s clothes, she pleaded, tears and snot streaming down her face.

But her anguished cry was something that not even the elves present could answer.

“Please!”

“Understood. I will do everything in my power.”

And for that very reason, they could not believe his words.

The elves themselves, the elven physicians, had already given up, deeming it impossible.

So why could he, a Knight Commander, speak with such conviction?

“If I may be so bold… it appears there is nothing that can be done by proper physicians, filled as they are with the law-abiding spirit and sense of duty of medical professionals. That is to be expected. However, I, Gaikaku Hikume… am well-versed in illegal medicine. If we begin treatment at once… if we perform surgery, there may yet be a chance…”

“What?! You can’t mean you intend to perform an organ transplant?!”

Hearing Gaikaku’s explanation, one of the elven physicians cried out in shock.

“In all of medical history, there are exceedingly few successful cases of surgery on elves… which is why it was never approved as a formal medical practice!”

“Precisely. However, I see no other option.”

Gaikaku threw off his hood, shifting into a state of readiness.

A moment later, his artillery troops entered the room, filing in in an orderly line.

“Sensei! We’ve brought the cultured elven organs!”

“Universal blood is prepped and ready!”

“Protective magic circles, disinfectant, and anesthetic, all here!”

“We have the various monitors, surgical tools, and surgical gowns as well!”

“…W-Why do you have cultured elven organs prepared? The creation of cultured organs is also supposed to be illegal…”

“As you can see, I have elven subordinates, so I had them prepared as a precaution. I never thought I would be using them at a time like this…”

Gaikaku addressed the astonished official physician with the utmost respect.

“I imagine this is a frustrating situation for you, as a licensed practitioner. I sympathize with your position, but please, leave this to me.”

“But…”

“I am the one who devised this operation. I am also one of those responsible.”

Gaikaku placed a hand on his own chest.

“Please, let me take responsibility. Let me be the one to save the girl I put in danger.”

“…P-Please, I leave her to you!”

No one could interject in the conversation between two men of specialized knowledge.

But as the elven physician entrusted the matter to Gaikaku, Dikes placed a hand on his daughter’s shoulder.

As he began to lead her from the room, he made his own request of Gaikaku.

“Lord Gaikaku… please, I entrust my subordinate to you!”

“Please, save Etacarina!”

Most of the forest’s inhabitants withdrew, leaving only the Artillery Corps and Gaikaku behind.

“Whew… It’s been a while since I’ve performed emergency surgery on an elf…”

“Sensei… can you succeed?”

“I heard that elven life force is weak, and that even a minor surgery can cause them to fade…”

“There’s no guarantee of success. But…”

Gaikaku looked down at the woman lying on the floor, her breathing growing ever fainter.

“I will give it my all! Lend me a hand, you lot!”

“Yes, sir!”

※

The moment she stepped out of the Forest Chief’s manor, Aspi lost consciousness.

After days of being on edge, the sudden release of tension must have been too much for her.

Dikes panicked as she suddenly fainted.

“W-What’s wrong?!”

“It seems she has fainted… For now, let us take her to the hospital.”

“P-Please, do…!”

Dikes agreed to the elven physician’s recommendation for a thorough examination.

Even if there were no external injuries, it wouldn’t be surprising if she had developed a psychosomatic illness.

If something were to happen to the daughter he had just managed to save, he would never be able to face Etacarina.

“No… Soldiers, please carry the young miss.”

The physician, looking somewhat agitated, instructed them to take her to a proper hospital.

Several soldiers carefully lifted her and began carrying her to the hospital at a brisk pace.

Of course, the physician himself, as well as Dikes, accompanied them.

But Dikes’s thoughts were with Gaikaku and Etacarina.

“…You said it was an illegal act. What did you mean by that?”

“The world of medicine is intimately tied to ethics. For that reason, there are procedures that are legally restricted, even if we know they can cure.”

To become a physician was to study the history of medicine.

That was why he knew, as a matter of knowledge, what Gaikaku was attempting to do.

“To put it simply, there is a technique to replace the organs within the body… the heart, the liver, with new ones. Lord Gaikaku intends to do just that.”

“What…? Is such a thing even possible?”

“Technically, it was. However… for races with thick musculature like Ogres, the incision is difficult, and we elves are too frail… so it became a technique primarily for humans and goblins. But… there were many ethical problems, and in the end, it was outlawed.”

To remove a failing organ and replace it with a new one.

Depending on how widespread the practice was, it was not so strange to feel a sense of revulsion.

“There were also… cases where the new organ was not accepted, and the patient died soon after…”

“I see. So that’s why it was outlawed.”

“…There is more.”

The physician’s face was grim.

“It was said that by transplanting the organs or limbs of an elite, even a mediocre person could…”

“…I understand. That’s enough.”

“Such vulgar rumors became rampant at one point…”

To take the parts of an elite and transplant them into a commoner.

It was almost certain that this would be done without the elite’s consent.

“…Then those things his subordinates brought… were they, well, taken from other people?”

“No, he said they were cultured organs… so they are likely organs created from nothing.”

“Such technology exists?!”

“Yes, and this too was deemed ethically problematic. Furthermore, since it incurred a cost to produce them, there were… many cases of people taking organs from the poor and passing them off as ‘cultured products’… and as a result, even the culturing technology itself was banned.”

“…There is a darkness in this world, isn’t there.”

Even from just this brief explanation, it was easy to understand why it had been outlawed.

As Forest Chief, Dikes knew of humanity’s malice.

In a sense, he knew of beings even more vicious than the Lizardmen from this incident.

“It seems that man has mastered that very technology…”

“I see. I understand that it is illegal. However, regardless of the outcome, I have no intention of condemning him. Should my daughter condemn him, I will take the blame myself.”

Right beside him was his daughter, unconscious but unharmed.

After this, what more could he possibly ask for?

“Lord Gaikaku was being considerate… but in the end, it is all my fault!!”

※

Aspi, having been rescued, awoke two days after the incident was resolved.

With a clear memory of everything up until she had fainted, the first thing she did upon waking was to ask after Etacarina.

It seemed that whether her handmaiden had been saved was more important to her than her own rescue.

Ignoring the attempts of those around her to calm her down, she made for the room where Etacarina was said to be resting.

As it was in the same hospital, she reached it quickly.

Stumbling, she nevertheless opened the door and…

“Etacarina…!”

She found her, lying on a sheet inscribed with a magic circle, tubes connected to her body.

She seemed to be unconscious still, her eyes peacefully closed.

But looking at her chest, it was clear from the slight rise and fall that she was breathing.

“Ah…”

Confirming this, Aspi’s legs gave out from under her.

Gaikaku, who was in the same room, spoke to her.

“Oh, Lady Aspi. You are awake.”

“From your state, I take it you have not yet eaten. This will not do; you will collapse again.”

“You are… if I recall, from the Conjurer Knights…”

“Indeed. I am Gaikaku Hikume. On this occasion, I have had the honor of serving as the attending physician for this courageous young woman.”

“You were the one… M-My apologies for the discourtesy.”

“Your timing is perfect. Would you care to join us for an explanation of the surgery?”

It was only then that Aspi realized her father and the hospital’s leading physicians were all gathered in the room.

She blushed anew at the thought of having made a fool of herself in front of so many people.

“Y-Yes, please… Ahem! I would be most grateful, Lord Gaikaku Hikume. As things stand, I doubt I could swallow a single bite of food.”

“…Let my daughter join us. I ask this of you as well.”

Seeing his daughter hastily stand and compose herself as a lady, Dikes prompted the explanation with a tearful, wry smile.

“She received a blow to the abdomen from the Lizardman. This caused damage to several internal organs and also shattered parts of her skeleton… To be frank, had she been left untreated, she would have died. I took the liberty of performing a procedure, knowing I was overstepping my authority, and have managed to save her life. Her condition is stable for now, but there is still a possibility of a sudden change… I was thinking I would personally oversee her care for a while.”

“I see… So she is stable now? And you will be watching over her, Lord Hikume? In that case, I can rest easy…”

“Ah, you have truly saved her. Thank you.”

While the two figures of authority were relieved, the physicians were fidgeting.

As specialists, they were likely curious about the specific methods used to heal her.

Sensing this, Gaikaku began to explain.

“First, regarding the damaged organs, I excised them and transplanted the cultured organs I had prepared beforehand. As for the shattered skeleton, I removed the fragments, resected the damaged areas, and replaced them with cultured bone as well.”

“Y-You say that so simply… but what about rejection? The immune system should have reacted… The drugs to suppress it are too potent and would be toxic to an elven body!”

“H-Her spine should have been broken as well…? How in the world did you replace it?”

To their eager questions, Gaikaku began to explain as politely as he could.

“You are aware of what are known as medical magic circles, I presume. I applied them to the cultured organs and bones before transplanting them.”

“…I-I see! If you inscribed the magic circles beforehand, the burden on the patient would be greatly reduced!”

“To inscribe a magic circle directly onto an organ… Is that something only possible with cultured organs?!”

“Even so, it must be difficult… What kind of technique…”

The specialists seemed to understand, but with the introduction of technical jargon, the father and daughter were completely lost.

Gaikaku began to speak in terms they too could understand.

“A medical magic circle is a magic circle inscribed directly onto the human body. You might call it a technique for carving magic circles into the body itself. Whereas normal magic circles are geometric, these are a bit more pictorial… much like the one inscribed on the sheet she is lying on.”

Looking again at the sheet Etacarina lay upon, they could see a ‘picture’ resembling some kind of symbol, drawn as a magic circle.

The elves could tell that it was drawing on Etacarina’s own magical power to function gently.

“It is a type of sorcery that allows magical power to act upon a living body.”

“Such a thing exists? I have never heard of it…”

“Of course not. This too is an illegal technique. It was sealed away due to… various circumstances.”

“I-Illegal?!”

“Yes… It was abused far too often, but… there are drawbacks even when used correctly.”

Magic is the art of drawing a magic circle through incantation, thereby activating a spell.

Sorcery is the art of drawing a magic circle in advance and activating it by channeling magical power through it.

In other words, a magic circle is like a program, or an electronic circuit.

To inscribe that directly onto the body is like constantly using magic without the person’s intent.

“If one engages in strenuous exercise or uses magic while a magic circle is inscribed on their body, they will die.”

“…”

“They die.”

Gaikaku stated it with extreme bluntness: “They die.”

It was very easy to understand, but so crude as to make one wonder what the point of the preceding explanation had been.

“Lady Aspi… what Lord Gaikaku says is true. If one tries to use magical power with a magic circle inscribed on the body, an excess of power will flow into that circle as well… causing unintended magical energy to circulate through the body.”

“It is not difficult to imagine how fatal that would be.”

“That said, it is still a marvelous technique. It was considered promising at first, but… there were many cases where patients, after hearing the explanation, failed to heed the warning and died attempting to exercise or use magic…”

“Ultimately, it was sealed away.”

Not all patients listen to what their doctors say.

In fact, most patients do not listen to what their doctors say.

Or perhaps the drawback of being unable to use magic for the rest of one’s life was simply too great.

It was not surprising that it would be deemed flawed and sealed away.

“Lord Gaikaku… even you were unable to solve that flaw?”

“No, that much is beyond even my abilities.”

The physicians looked somewhat disappointed.

And indeed, for an elf, it would be a great hardship.

An elf who cannot use magic would surely face difficulties in daily life.

“I see… But I am grateful she is alive. I will explain everything to Etacarina myself and guarantee her livelihood!”

“I-I, too… just the fact that she is alive is enough…!”

“The explanation is not yet finished.”

Calming the two of them, Gaikaku continued.

“One cannot use magic if the circle remains inscribed on the body. However, through my research, I have developed a modified magic circle that fades over time.”

“S-So, the one inscribed on her body will disappear with time?”

“No, it will not. The one inscribed on her is of a different type.”

Gaikaku stopped the physicians before they could jump to conclusions.

“Once her condition has stabilized to a degree, and the transplanted organs, bones, and skin have acclimated, we will perform another surgery. At that time, I will inscribe the magic circle I just mentioned… and from there, we will let it acclimate again, slowly, over time.”

“S-Specifically?”

“About a year and a half. After that much time, she should be able to use magic again.”

Another surgery, and being unable to use magic for a year and a half—it was certainly a harsh reality.

But it was a vast improvement over being unable to use magic or engage in strenuous exercise for the rest of her life.

Hearing this, the physicians’ eyes widened in astonishment, while the father and daughter were overjoyed.

“And one more thing… Ah, you’ve arrived. You may enter.”

“Huh? Is it alright, Sensei?”

“Of course. Nothing takes precedence over treatment.”

Just as he finished speaking, the Artillery Corps arrived outside the room.

They had brought medical instruments and were about to carry them inside.

But seeing the important people gathered in the room, they had apparently been unsure of what to do.

“I do apologize, but it is now time for an examination. I need to confirm whether the magic circle inscribed on Lady Etacarina is functioning properly and if her condition is stable… It pains me to ask, but I must request that you all take your leave.”

“O-Of course! Aspi, you haven’t eaten yet, have you? We mustn’t get in Lord Gaikaku’s way, so let us go.”

“Yes… Father. In that case, Lord Gaikaku, I leave Etacarina in your care.”

The father and daughter bowed their heads and left the hospital room.

They seemed truly relieved to know that Etacarina would be able to make a full recovery.

“I know this must be unpleasant for you, esteemed physicians, but please leave this to me and my assistants…”

“No… Unpleasant, painful… please do not say such things.”

The elven physicians employed by the hospital looked apologetic themselves.

“It is because of our own inadequacy that we have troubled you so…”

“As medical professionals, we feel nothing but distress…!”

“Nonsense. There is no need for you to be concerned.”

Gaikaku continued to treat the physicians with the utmost respect.

“Medicine is a constant battle with ethics. If you ignore that, you lose sight of what healing even is. I am merely an outlaw, ignoring ethics and performing illegal acts. Please, do not feel inferior because of it.”

His respect seemed to get through to them, as the elven physicians bowed their heads and exited, looking somewhat embarrassed.

The members of the Artillery Corps who entered in their place… looked rather conflicted.

“What’s wrong with you lot? You look quite displeased.”

“No, it’s just… it seems the Elves-sama have quite a lot of family love.”

They had been ferrying chemicals and other supplies from the Lives motor-car, which was parked outside the forest.

In the course of their trips back and forth, they had been observing what was happening within the forest.

Now that the tragedy was over, the forest was filled with voices mourning the deaths of their brethren and voices celebrating the safety of their kin.

To them, who had been sold by their own families, that sense of kinship rang hollow.

“What, would you have preferred they didn’t have it?”

“We’re not saying that, but…”

“Don’t get it twisted, you lot. Not every elf in this forest was persecuting you. And that certainly includes this courageous young woman.”

While teasing his subordinates, he did not neglect to admonish them.

He was, to the last, trying to save the woman he had embroiled in this affair.

“We’ll bring them down after we’ve saved her.”

Yes, to the last, he was trying to save only Etacarina.

“Trust me.”

At that moment, Gaikaku was not wearing his hood.

And so, the Artillery Corps could see his face.

It was a face that inspired both the terror of someone you should never cross, and the trust that everything would absolutely be alright, all at the same time.

“Every last one of the bastards you should be cursing—I’ll make them taste every ounce of the bitterness you’ve endured, with fifty percent interest.”