The Royal Mark-Chapter 92: Infirmary
Elsa didn’t stay long in the great hall, after the burning of Hera’s belongings, she went back to her room and ate her dinner there. She fell asleep crying while her dogs stayed by her side. Attending the memorial brought back a lot of memories of her mom and even though they are happy memories, she still couldn’t stop herself from crying.
The next day, she was woken up by her grandmother, Valeria together with her lady-in-waiting Constance and her other servants. They brought her breakfast with them.
"Get up dear, we have a long day ahead of us," Valeria said.
Elsa didn’t complain and obediently got up and walked to the table. "What are we going to do today Grandma?"
"I am going to teach you more about how to use your divine power." Elsa’s eyes widened in surprise and excitement. This was the moment that she had been for that she thought would never come.
"I will not repeat my mother’s mistake of not teaching me all of her knowledge when she still had the time. A lot of passed-down knowledge had been lost forever because of her hesitation in teaching me. So eat up, you’ll need a lot of energy today."
Elsa nodded and did what she was told. After their breakfast, they headed outside in front of the castle. "Are we going to train somewhere else?" she asked Valeria.
"Yes, we are. I have seen how easy it was for you to heal simple wounds when you cut the king’s arm. So, today we will go to the infirmary near the port where a lot of soldiers arrive wounded," Valeria said before getting in the carriage that had just arrived.
"But why are the soldiers wounded?" Elsa knows that there is an incoming war but, it’s not happening yet so she wonders, what happened to those people.
"The south and southeast of Zemaria are heavily guarded because in the south lies Kurzen Empire, home to the demons, while in the southeast lies the route going to Saldivar Territory, Arcanis Kingdom, and Vrenada Kingdom.
Right now, Kurzen, Saldivar, and Arcanis are allies, although not everyone in Arcanis is our enemy. There are still a lot of them who are loyal to Chris’ father, however, the ones who follow King Alaric Jorgensen, attacks our soldier who are patrolling our coast.
They are trying to get into our lands. The demons and witches are helping them, so even though we also employ battle mages together with the soldiers, there are still a lot of casualties," Valeria explained.
Valeria continued talking in the carriage, explaining some fundamentals of divine power to Elsa. In return, Elsa asked a lot of questions making Valeria happy for it only shows how interested her granddaughter was in learning their power.
When they arrived at the site, Elsa was overwhelmed by the overwhelmed by number of patients who needed healing. Valeria saw her face and said, "We will only focus on the severely wounded but curable. Your energy won’t last that long if you heal everybody here."
"And who will heal the ones that we cannot attend to today?" she asked worriedly for she was seeing only a few healers in the area.
"The lucky ones will be healed by the water mages while the unlucky ones will either lose a limb or their life."
"Tell me, grandma, what can’t we heal? What is the limit of our power?"
"We can heal wounds, curses, and dark magic-inflicted wounds. We cannot attach body parts like legs or arms. We cannot replenish blood in case they lose a lot. We cannot heal diseases that affect the internal organs but we can remove or reduce their body pain.
We can heal broken bones, as long as the flesh around it is still attached to the body. We cannot heal wounds that we cannot see or know about. So if someone’s inside is damaged and we don’t know which organ is in trouble then we cannot heal it."
Elsa nodded and walked into the infirmary and she was astounded to see that even though using magic is exercised in that world, their knowledge of medicine is quite primitive. The people depended so much on magic that they neglected to develop their knowledge about the human body and medicine.
The first thing she checked was their supply and she saw only a few bandages and a few buckets of water that she was not even sure if clean or not. She can already feel an incoming headache by just looking at the poor condition of the infirmary.
"Everybody listen up!" Elsa shouted and clapped her hands getting the attention of everyone. Even Valeria was surprised by what she just did. "Everyone who is not attending to a patient who’s fighting for his or her life please raise your hand."
Everyone looked at Valeria for they didn’t know who Elsa was. Valeria nodded at them, expressing her support for her. People started to raise their hands, causing Elsa to smile.
"You two, I need you to make as many bandages as you can," she said to the two ladies nearest her.
Elsa then pointed to four men, "The four of you boil and bring on each side of the bed." She chose two women and two men next. "I need a lot of needles, threads, and straight wooden sticks."
After that, she also ordered Valeria’s lady-in-waiting and servants to assist her in checking each of the patients and then sending them off to find herbs that she could use to sure the others. There were only a few soldiers who were severely wounded and Valeria was the one who attended to them.
Everyone was impressed at how Elsa handled the situation in the infirmary and only used minimal magic. After every patient was attended to, she wrote down the things that the infirmary lacked and gave them to Valeria.
"Oh dear, these are a lot! How did you know about these things? I am not even sure if we have this in Zemaria," Valeria exclaimed.
"I am a doctor in Novus grandma, a good one. It’s OK if you don’t have the others, introduce me to the people who can search and create the things on my list, and I’ll give them instructions," Elsa said confidently. The tools that she listed are the ones that she knows can be created in Zemaria using their current technology. Even though they are just some basic medical tools, she knows that it could help them save a lot of lives.
