The Immortal’s Personal Doctor Is an Internist

Chapter 3 of 5

Chapter 3

The Duke, who was standing there frozen, was immediately hit with a furious shout.

“Why are you just standing there?! Do you want to watch your adjutant die?! Move! Hurry!!”

Only then did the Duke bolt into action.

Lionel slapped Kaelen hard across the cheek.

“Mr. Aide? Mr. Aide, wake up! Where does it hurt?”

“H-Hah… haa… haa….”

Kaelen's breathing was abnormally fast.

His pulse was rapid and weak.

The stab wound is… on the left side of his chest. There's not much bleeding, but…

Lionel pressed her ear against his chest and listened.

There was barely any breathing sound from the left side, and the movement of his chest was rapidly decreasing.

Meanwhile, the right side was expanding excessively.

It's a tension pneumothorax.

Kaelen's face was gradually turning blue.

Right now, air was continuously entering through the hole in his lung but couldn't escape.

If she didn't treat him immediately, the outcome was obvious.

Lionel gritted her teeth.

“My bag!!”

The Duke tossed the bag over at just the right moment, and Lionel immediately dumped everything inside onto the floor.

Alcohol swabs, a small scalpel, and bandages rolled out one after another.

But what she needed wasn't there.

Lionel urgently asked,

“Do you have a long hollow metal rod? Something fairly long and rigid…”

Halfway through speaking, something suddenly flashed through Lionel's mind.

The bottle of orange juice Kaelen had brought her in the interview room.

“…A straw.”

“What?”

“The metal straw. Hurry! It's in the guest room!”

This time, the Duke didn't argue.

He immediately ran off.

While waiting for him, Lionel took out the scalpel blade.

“It's going to hurt, Mr. Aide, but endure it. It's better than dying, right?”

Kaelen, his face pale blue, barely managed to nod.

Lionel carefully turned his body slightly to the side.

With one hand, she felt along the ribs beneath the front of his armpit.

The fifth intercostal space.

Lionel cleaned the area with an alcohol swab.

After taking one short breath, she placed the tip of the blade against his skin.

“Urgh….”

There was no time to worry about his groaning.

Lionel made an incision through the skin, then took the metal straw the Duke had brought back and pushed it straight inside.

The Duke cried out in shock at the sight.

“What are you doing—?!”

“Be quiet!! If you have nothing to do, at least hold his hand!”

At her sharp shout, the Duke immediately shut his mouth.

Lionel was about to focus on her fingertips again when—

“…!”

A large hand suddenly covered hers.

Startled, Lionel looked up.

She saw the Duke's sharp profile as he stared intently at their joined hands.

—Idiot! Not my hand! The patient's hand!!

But there was no time to argue.

Lionel tightened her grip and pushed the straw deeper.

It passed through the muscle—

Pop.

She felt the sensation of piercing through the pleura.

At that exact moment, air burst out explosively.

Pssssshhh—!!

Air blasted through the straw under tremendous pressure.

Kaelen's chest rapidly sank back down.

The excessive expansion on the right side of his chest also gradually began to lessen.

“Cough…!”

Kaelen gasped harshly.

The bluish color of his lips slowly began turning red again.

Only then did Lionel, who had unknowingly been holding her breath, finally release a sigh of relief.

By the time her pounding heart started to calm down, Lionel met the Duke's eyes.

Seeing his shoulders rise and fall slightly, a strange sense of camaraderie welled up from deep inside her.

I thought he was completely cold-blooded, but he actually has a human side after all.

Lionel steadied her breathing and adjusted her posture.

The immediate crisis had passed, but they still couldn't relax.

“…For now, let's move the patient. He'll need additional treatment.”

The Duke's violet eyes remained fixed on Lionel for a long moment.

Then he closed them briefly and nodded.

Only then did their still-connected hands finally separate.

“Let's do that.”

“The treatment is finished.”

Late that night.

Back in the drawing room where the interview had taken place, Lionel gave her report.

“It will take several days for all the air to drain through the new tube I inserted.”

If only I could give him a single shot of clindamycin…

Lionel desperately missed the antibiotics that had been so commonplace in hospitals.

Medical schools and hospitals existed in this world, but compared to modern medicine, their medical knowledge was a complete mess.

Naturally, antibiotics didn't exist.

Most treatments merely relieved whatever symptoms a patient happened to be experiencing at the time.

On top of that, medicine itself was treated almost like a privilege reserved for nobles.

There were plenty of people who couldn't receive treatment even after going to a hospital.

She had cut him open and stuck a tube into his chest without antibiotics, so infection was a serious concern.

But for now…

All she could do was hope Kaelen's body endured it.

“Doctor Lionel Francia.”

Why was he suddenly using her full name?

Lionel cautiously watched him.

The Duke lowered his head slightly toward her.

“You have my gratitude for saving my adjutant's life.”

“Huh? Ah, no. It's nothing. I only did what I should have done. I'm actually grateful that Your Grace followed my instructions so well.”

“I see. Then, since you've finished everything you needed to do…”

The Duke leaned back against the sofa.

The atmosphere around him changed in an instant.

In a cold voice, he said,

“Shall we begin the interview again?”

“…Ah.”

Now that the adrenaline raging through her body had settled down, her sense of reality gradually returned.

The Duke was still sitting there with his bloodstained shirt hanging open.

There wasn't even a scar left on his chest.

…I'm screwed.

Lionel suddenly remembered the plot of the novel The Flower That Never Wilts.

A very long time ago, the male lead had been cursed with immortality.

He regularly changed his identity while moving from place to place, until eventually obtaining the position of Duke and settling down in one location.

Then he met the sunshine-like female lead and entered into a contract marriage with her.

Like any male lead from a dark romance novel, the Duke became obsessed.

The female lead went crazy.

Then the Duke imprisoned her.

She went even crazier…

At the end, the heroine broke the male lead's curse, so it looked like they were finally getting a happy ending—

Only for everyone to die together instead.

Haah… This wasn't the time to celebrate getting an easy patient who doesn't need treatment.

The Duke in the novel was an unbelievably ruthless man.

Aside from his closest confidants, he killed everyone who discovered his secret.

And even among those closest to him, anyone who revealed his secret was killed without exception.

There was a reason readers had nicknamed him the death-crazy bastard.

As in—

the bastard who went crazy because he couldn't die.

And I just ordered that death-crazy bastard around like he was some annoying intern…

Lionel gathered every scrap of acting ability she possessed and answered as calmly as possible.

“Are you going to kill me? I saved your adjutant's life. Surely that deserves at least a little consideration?”

“Doctor, haven't you wondered where all the servants in this mansion went?”

The Duke looked at her.

“Despite everything that happened, not a single person has appeared.”

Lionel had been too busy to notice before, but now that he mentioned it, that certainly was strange.

The Duke kindly explained the situation.

“Uninvited guests come to this mansion quite often. Whenever that happens, the servants evacuate underground and wait until everything is resolved. The knights remain at their assigned positions as well.”

He continued.

“But the aide rushed outside specifically to save you.”

Lionel hesitated.

“Then… if I hadn't been here, Mr. Aide wouldn't have gotten hurt?”

“I'm not trying to blame you, but yes. You could say that.”

—You're absolutely blaming me!!

Lionel swallowed the complaint that had risen all the way to her throat.

Instead, she rapidly began searching for a way to survive.

Then an idea came to her.

“Your Grace. I'm truly sorry that Mr. Aide was badly injured because of me.”

She took a breath.

“But since things have already turned out this way… why don't you hire me?”

Right.

If he killed ordinary people who knew his secret—

Then she just had to become one of his closest confidants who knew the secret.

Lionel immediately began promoting herself just like she had during hospital job interviews.

“Top score when entering the Imperial Medical Academy, top of my graduating class, and the youngest graduate! I've also worked at a general hospital and have experience as a personal physician.”

She leaned forward eagerly.

“Please hire me!”

Of course, I got fired from all those jobs, but if you hire me here, I swear I won't even think about forming a labor union. I'll obediently play the perfect subordinate!

She decided not to say that part.

It felt like it might have the opposite effect.

Lionel anxiously waited for the Duke's answer.

The Duke kept his lips pressed into a straight line and silently glared at her.

Even though the situation was deadly serious, his face was so handsome that Lionel temporarily forgot about reality.

Finally, he spoke.

“I'll decide tomorrow whether or not to kill you.”

Lionel froze.

“So go rest for tonight.”

“…What?”

She immediately shook her head.

“No, I can't. I need to take care of Mr. Aide.”