The Doctor Cured The Villainess And Ran Away-Chapter 25: Time for an Injection (2)
“Lord Gotberg, what exactly is that thing?”
Asella’s voice suddenly grew urgent.
Her reaction was more than a little strange.
I couldn’t figure out the reason.
Surely she wasn’t... scared of a syringe? I couldn’t even imagine such a thing.
I answered in my usual calm tone.
“It’s a device called a syringe. I’ll be using it to collect a small sample of Your Highness’s blood for testing.”
“You’re saying... you’re going to stick that needle into me to draw blood?”
“Exactly as you said, yes.”
Asella’s mouth fell slightly open. She froze on the spot.
She really could make a dumb expression when she wanted to.
“Lord Gotberg, are you... a vampire?”
“What on earth are you saying? If I were a demon, I wouldn’t have been able to pass through the portal.”
“Well... okay, true, but still—where exactly do you plan to stick that needle?”
“Into a vein. On the inside of your arm.”
I raised my own elbow and tapped it lightly to demonstrate.
Asella flinched and subtly leaned her upper body away from me, shuddering.
“Your Highness?”
“You’re messing with me right now, aren’t you.”
“A physician never jokes about medical procedures with a patient. Even the smallest misunderstanding can result in malpractice.”
Asella tightly closed her eyes and pressed a hand to her forehead.
Well, it’s not surprising that she’d be wary of something she’s never seen before.
She did ask if I was a vampire.
And in this world, drawing blood really wasn’t a normal thing.
“Excuse me, Doctor. Are you saying you intend to injure Her Highness’s sacred body? That is absolutely unacceptable!”
The head maid—Lucie, if I remembered correctly—finally couldn’t hold back and cut in.
She wasn’t wrong, to be fair.
“That’s understandable. But it’s hardly worth calling an injury. It’s no more than a tiny pinprick, and I’ll treat it immediately. The information we get from the blood sample will greatly aid in protecting Her Highness’s health.”
“Does it have to be blood? Couldn’t you use... another method besides medicine?”
“Wasn’t it Your Highness who promised to provide an environment suitable for practicing medicine?”
“...I did.”
Asella backed me up, giving weight to my argument.
She was biting her lip. Did she want to protest but couldn’t?
Maybe she couldn’t turn it down out of pride, since she was the one who’d said it.
“If this is standard practice in medicine... then I did give permission to use it, so... sigh.”
Asella let out a long breath and steeled herself.
“Do it. Use whatever method you need.”
“Yes, Your Highness.”
Now that Asella had given the order, Lucie had no choice but to back down—though she added one final remark.
“Please conduct the test here, in this room. And when it’s complete, dispose of Her Highness’s blood sample in our presence.”
“If it were to end up used in black magic, it would be a disaster. I understand completely. I’ll handle it accordingly.”
My clear answer seemed to satisfy her—no more objections followed.
“Your Highness, please extend your arm.”
Asella bit her lower lip, then slowly stretched out her right arm toward me.
“...Do it.”
“I’ll begin the blood draw.”
I tied a rubber strip around the upper part of her arm.
Asella twitched the moment it tightened.
“...Is it over?”
“Pardon? Ah, no. That was just the tourniquet. It makes the veins easier to locate.”
Next, I prepared a cotton swab for disinfecting.
I had plenty of pure alcohol prepared—cheap liquor I’d refined with alchemy.
Alchemy really was amazing. So damn convenient.
I rolled up her sleeve. Her forearm was smooth and pale, the skin thin and delicate.
I wiped the inside of her elbow with the alcohol swab.
“...Hic!”
Was she alcohol-sensitive?
She let out a sharp little noise like someone with an allergy.
But no, she likes drinking, doesn’t she?
“Are we done now?”
“No, that was just disinfection. Since the process involves breaking the skin, we need to avoid infection.”
“Ugh... infection... what even is that...”
Asella turned her head away and clenched her eyes shut.
...This is when I finally started to realize something was truly off.
The Golden Witch herself—afraid of losing a single drop of blood?
Could she really be scared?
Deep down, a wave of satisfaction started creeping up on me.
No, no. Focus, Las. Snap out of it.
If she were truly terrified, I could be fast-tracking my way to a bad ending.
...Hmm. Then again, I wasn’t seeing any new system alerts or number shifts.
So it should be fine.
I continued with the procedure.
“Please stay still.”
Her skin was thin, and her veins were clearly visible. I didn’t even need to tap her arm.
―Sshhhp...
The blood draw ended quickly.
I pressed a cotton swab against the spot and applied gentle pressure.
Asella slowly opened her mouth.
“...Is it over? Tell me it’s actually over this time...”
“Yes, it’s over. There may be some bruising, so please wait a moment—”
“You!”
Asella suddenly turned her head toward me with an expression of raw frustration I had never seen before.
She was practically huffing, like a steam engine about to blow its stack.
Pshhh—
I had to fight with everything I had not to smile.
The almighty Asella—scared of a needle.
Aw, poor thing.
Should’ve given her a candy or something.
As I kept applying pressure to prevent bruising on Asella’s arm, time passed slowly.
“...Hoo.”
Asella exhaled a deep breath.
The mark from the blood draw was already long gone, but she had thrown a fit demanding I wrap it with a bandage anyway.
The needle was really thin, too.
“So, Lord Gotberg.”
“Yes, Your Highness.”
Asella kept rubbing the spot on her arm like it still felt strange.
“You’ve drawn my blood—so I assume you’re confident you’ll deliver results worthy of it?”
“Of course.”
I answered without hesitation, but I immediately regretted it, wondering just how high her standards of ‘worthy’ might be.
“What kind of results would Your Highness like, more specifically?”
Asella’s lips curled ever so slightly.
I was starting to learn—whenever she made that face, she was usually thinking something devilish.
“Lucie.”
“Yes, Your Highness.”
“Have you briefed Lord Gotberg on the emergency protocol manual?”
“I was planning to do so today, since it’s his first official day on duty.”
“Lord Gotberg, based on what you’ve discovered from my blood so far, propose a countermeasure.”
The head maid bowed and stepped back.
What manual? What kind of situation are we even talking about?
You could at least hint at the topic. I had no clue what she expected.
“Would you care for a candy?”
On the off chance that a bribe might soften the punishment if I failed the task, I pulled out a rose candy and offered it to her.
“......”
Hm. That look on her face wasn’t good.
Guess it was too cheap for her noble palate.
Just as I was about to slip the candy back into my pocket, Asella snapped.
“Leave it.”
I cautiously set the candy down on the table.
She unwrapped it, and with her tiny tongue, began to lick it.
“Then, I’ll begin the examination.”
If blood isn’t tested quickly, it can deteriorate from temperature and humidity exposure.
Asella’s blood, which I’d drawn into two separate glass tubes, rippled a bright red inside. Three milliliters each.
A backup sample was necessary in case the skill failed or contamination occurred.
I shook one vial about ten times and uncapped it.
I poured a small amount into a shallow dish—just enough to coat the bottom in red.
Let’s hope there’s no contamination.
If any foreign elements affected the results, the whole thing would be worthless.
I had sterilized the dish beforehand, but given the hygiene standards of this era, I couldn’t help but feel a bit skeptical.
Let’s try [Blood Test].
I activated the skill.
I stared at the vivid crimson pooled at the bottom of the dish.
...Nothing happened.
Is the activation method different from Diagnosis? Then let’s try that first.
Diagnosis should trigger just by looking at an injured person’s blood.
I figured I’d at least get some kind of ~Nоvеl𝕚ght~ feedback.
―――――――――――
Injury Status: ■■■
Injury Status: ■■■
Injury Status: ■■■
Injury Status: ■■■
Injury ■■: Rank ■ insufficient ■
―――――――――――
The characters on the status screen began to break apart.
“Ugh.”
A wave of pain stabbed through my skull. I canceled the diagnosis immediately and shook my head.
Asella, watching from across the table, propped her chin on her hand.
“Not going how you hoped, is it?”
“It’s going well. Please wait.”
“You were just trying to use a spell, weren’t you? Looks like it bounced right off.”
She sounded smug.
She was relishing my failure.
The diagnosis hadn’t worked, but I had confirmed one thing.
Asella’s condition was far from normal.
She was wounded—injured by a debuff linked to her own gift.
I probably couldn’t identify the debuff because the level of her magical talent was something I didn’t understand.
I need to use Blood Test. But how does it activate?
In real-world medicine, blood tests worked by interfacing a sample with a machine.
My medical skills were all based on knowledge from my past life.
If I assumed I was the diagnostic device...
“Hm.”
I rolled up my sleeve and dipped a fingertip into the blood sample.
My nail was quickly coated in Asella’s sticky blood.
She looked slightly horrified at the sight—but disappointing her by failing to produce any results would’ve been worse.
Bingo.
Text scrolled down the status window.
―――――――――――
Blood Test Activated.
Patient: Asella von Württempelt
Blood Type: B Rh-
WBC: 24.7
HGB: 8.9
HCT: 28.8%
...
―――――――――――
What the hell is this?
Lines and lines of cryptic letters and numbers, like a coded message.
Some terms were a little hazy, but I tapped my temple and recalled what I could.
First off, her blood type was unusual.
A rare type, which meant transfusions would be extremely difficult.
What’s with these inflammation markers?
Asella’s physical condition was in shambles.
She was young, and with a good diet, so indicators like blood sugar, calcium, and protein levels were fine.
Her liver was functioning normally, too.
The problem was inflammation.
Her white blood cell count was through the roof.
There was internal damage and infection somewhere in her body—
And it was still ongoing.
She can’t possibly not feel pain at this point...
I glanced back at Asella.
Her face looked the same as always.
Even ten years in the future, she never showed any signs of pain.
I’d heard something about this once, from ten years ahead.
That Asella had lost control due to pain tied to the cost of her magic.
But I’d always thought that incident was unrelated to the present, just some future catastrophe.
I’d assumed the pain, like my own growth-type debuff, was something she’d acquired after mastering a certain level of magic.
But now...
She’s been enduring it all along?
I couldn’t believe it.
This kind of pain—it’d feel like her insides were being twisted apart nonstop.
Before I realized it, my hand had moved toward the vial of painkiller I kept carefully stored in my medical bag.
It took hours to make. I only had one dose.
“Your Highness.”
“Yes?”
“Do you... ever feel a squeezing or stabbing pain in your chest or abdomen?”
The moment I asked, Asella’s expression went ice-cold.
As if I had uncovered a secret that was never meant to be known.
