The Lost Doctor's Soul - Chapter 35 - The first proper step in a new world
People are born, they live, then they die. If I were to boil down the core truth of my life till now, it’d be that simple fact.
As a doctor, I’ve helped people through each of these stages. I’ve helped give birth, I actively treat and support patients through illness or injury, and I’ve watched patients die. It was what defined me, made me Dr. Armin Fischer, drove me to work as hard as I could every day and feel like I contributed to the world in some meaningful way.
Even this one single, utterly simple truth of mine no longer exists. Sat in a cave of haunting echoes, warming my cold body with nothing but a large heated rock, too scared to even light a proper fire, I found myself wondering why I was even alive.
Alive… there’s that word again. People are born, they live, then they die. But what of me? I died, didn’t I? Millar, the last owner of this body, also died. So am I alive again? Was I reborn or was my death simply negated? I’ve been tossed into a new world with powers beyond my comprehension… and my first real impact on the world was that I led to the death of an adventurer and murdered a soldier of some temple under the orders of a devil.
What kind of fetid creature have I become? I could only ask myself that as I stared up at the dark and damp ceiling above me, seeing moss and some unknown fungus hanging overhead. Whatever that was would probably be enough to make me doublethink spending the night here, normally, but I didn’t have the luxury of making a choice like that now.
“I didn’t talk about it properly before, but I don’t really have a home I can go back to anymore…” Kanako’s small voice broke through the constant droning of the wind, making me look down from the ceiling to meet her eyes. She sat opposite to me with her bluish green hands almost pressed against the large heated rock. In nothing but her underwear, the full extent of her Oni traits could be seen, from the four horns on her head to the scale-like texture of her blue-green skin, apart from her face. She also had a few pale pink scars scattered across her body, and I could see her bones in some places as her skin clung close to them. A sign of prolonged malnutrition. Her words paused, but no one else spoke. It seemed she needed some more time to find her voice again.
Aside from Arashi, who had a thin black kimono or whatever that garb was called, the rest of us had stripped down to our underwear to let our clothes dry. We were all well adjusted adults, so there were no issues. What caught my eyes the most was just how well built Nisha’s body was. When I think of elves, I imagine an effeminate race thoroughly focused on being nimble and dextrous, with an otherwise lackadaisical attitude, but while Nisha might be a bit on the pretty side, his body was nothing less than a stereotypical barbarian. With countless scars and claw marks, it was clear he got those muscles and his strength through constant battle for however long he lived.
“I was raised by a group of criminals, and I only ever learnt to sneak around and… steal things. I don’t want to live like that anymore, but I don’t have any other skills, and because I’m a demon I can’t reveal my identity, so I can’t get a normal job either.” Her words were quiet, but laced with emotion. It was obvious she had done something worse than stealing, but I couldn’t judge her. Instead, I sympathised with her plight, but had no knowledge or advice worth sharing.
“Why are you going to Lariatne?” Nisha surprisingly asked. “I think my people are there, so I go. Arashi looks for something, maybe it is there, so she go. Armin new to this world, only place he knows of, so he go. But why are you going?” He elaborated on his thoughts, and I couldn’t help but agree with his logic and question. Arashi, who was facing away, keeping guard, also half turned to listen. Her eyes moved across us in a suspicious way. By that I mean I’m suspicious of her gaze. Perhaps we weren’t all well adjusted adults after all.
Scratching the back of her head, Kanako let out a small chuckle. “Honestly, when I heard Armin was going somewhere, I said I was too because I wanted to travel with him. He just feels really safe…” So she said, but that was a fairly weak reason to travel so far. “Ah, okay. Yes, he feels like an uncle.” Nisha inexplicably agreed, confusing me. Yes, I’m thirty-four and considerably older than Kanako, but Nisha was surely double my age as an elf, wasn’t he? “I never had someone like that around, but I think that’s what I felt, yeah.” Kanako agreed. “Y- I mean, sir Fischer feels… reliable, like he’s… lived through more.” Arashi didn’t explicitly call me an uncle, but I could feel her mull over that and hold herself back from saying something. She’s in her mid to late twenties, so our actual ages are pretty close. And Millar’s body is even younger than her, so how could she say that?
“I’m sorry, but just how old are you, Nisha? I can understand Kanako thinking I’m old, but aren’t you much older than me?” I couldn’t help but ask. “I don’t know.” Nisha simply replied with a shrug. “He looks like a young adult, so a hundred at the very least?” Arashi replied, making the ‘uncle’ comment sting even more. I don’t need a hundred year old calling me an uncle. This led to a bit of back and forth as I questioned everyone’s ages, learning Arashi was 27 and Kanako was 20. When the confusion came of what my exact age was, I even asked Starlight. She complained about some nonsense, but eventually coughed up that Millar was 21. I made sure to tell Arashi off for calling me old given she wasn’t much younger.
I also asked Starlight if I gave off ‘uncle vibes’ and her answer was “Don’t ask useless questions.” which felt a bit like she agreed, so I chose to hide this mental conversation from the group.
At some point during all of this, Kanako started laughing, making me stop and look at her. Just what did she find so funny all of a sudden? “You really are an uncle.” Nisha suddenly said with a smile. And Arashi nodded. Jesus, give me strength. And she just ran her eyes over my body. She tried to hide it, but I caught it. I can’t believe the best behaved one turned out to be the pervert of the group.
With the atmosphere somewhat lightened after this bit of banter, the night felt a bit easier, and I pushed my questions to the back of my mind. Since we didn’t have anything else we could do while trying to stay alert, we continued talking for a bit through the next few hours. I learnt quite a few things during this time, but there was one gnawing issue that we finally had to address: Vildost never showed up again.
-
Even after several hours passed, Vildost was nowhere to be seen. There was no way he would get caught if we managed to escape, so he left on his own volition. Surprising as it was, it wasn’t hard to imagine why. It probably involved Starlight, even if she refused to say anything about it. “I don’t have anything to say.” were her words when I asked her, and since they weren’t “I don’t know” or “I don’t care”, she definitely knew. Should a devil really be so easy to read?
I also took this chance to deliver the sword to Starlight and split the coins with everyone. Starlight’s reaction was so mundane it felt like a common delivery and not me handing a powerful item to a devil. She simply told me to put it in a corner and I did. I stored away Vildost’s share and most of mine in the hospital, but we were all 3,000 marks richer now… which still felt like a scam, but at least we won’t struggle for money for a while now.
As a side note, I treated Nisha and after expenses my total is now 24.7🜍. My body in the hospital is separate from my body in the material plane, so I had to bring the supplies out of the hospital to do so. Part of me wondered how I’d treat myself if I were injured, but another part of me replied with the obvious truth that doctors don’t operate on themselves because they can’t.
Thinking about it, I had a strange mix of rather strong and very attractive people around me. I couldn’t help but feel someone, maybe this Endro, was pulling strings behind the scenes and led to this anime-like situation… but I’m relieved there’s been no kinky flirty anime nonsense, even though one of the people around me is a literal succubus.
I learnt a few things over the several hours before the storm finally let out a bit.
First, potions and magic that fully heal wounds are rare and almost always monopolized by people and groups in power. Second, medical knowledge is gated behind several groups and you need to pass an official exam from one of (mostly) those same several groups to gain a medical license. Third, my hospital is the most similar to the powers of high level devils (It’s tied to Starlight, so no great shock there), so I shouldn’t show it off too often or there’ll be trouble.
All in all, despite having magic, this Earth seems to have problems very similar to my Earth. Medical treatment is a necessity like food and water, it shouldn’t be expensive, yet the greed of the few in power make things worse for everyone.
Returning home is my top priority, but while I’m on this adventure to find a way back… I can’t just turn a blind eye to all of this nonsense. I carry hundreds of years of medical knowledge in my head, and if I understand right, I could use the Information System option of the Soul Hospital to find every medical book I’ve ever read. Huh, if I use the Director’s Journal, then I can organise the information in a way fitting for this world and easily copy it all down into books…
“It all fits so well that this feels like someone’s scheme.” I couldn’t help but mutter. If this Endro lied about being surprised and gave me all of these abilities after hand-picking me to end up here, this outcome was probably obvious to them from the start. Being manipulated didn’t feel good, but that didn’t change the responsibilities I had. I live to contribute to the world in some meaningful way, and I don’t see a reason to treat this world any differently.
Maybe… I could make up for what I’ve already done wrong here, this way?
-
Once the light of dawn broke through the clouds and the river of rain falling from the sky lessened to a stream, I realised we were lucky with a random decision we made before this mission. Everyone put their bags in the waiting room, and thanks to that we didn’t lose anything, because going back to the shelter now was next to impossible.
I suppose returning to claim the reward on those lost items is a lost cause too.
“Can we make it to the city in this weather, or should we wait longer?” I asked the group. With how awful the rain was, I feared the path would be flooded, but Nisha waved off my concern. “The ground here doesn’t flood easy.” he said, pointing down at the basalt-like ground. I didn’t notice, but the water was flowing away between the many cracks without a problem. If the storms were a monthly occurrence for hundreds or even thousands of years, the environment probably developed around it. “We’re not far enough from the village. They’d find us if we stayed till the storm left.” Kanako added her concern. It’d be foolish to just wait after putting so much effort into running away. “I have a map… but how do we navigate like this?” Arashi asked, holding out a map made of engraved wooden panels. That was an interesting way to make waterproof maps. It was much more detailed than the leather map I got from that mer-person when I first got here.
Marking the place I first woke up in this world with an x, it really put into context how little of the world I’ve seen. I hadn’t even travelled a tenth of this one island. Once we checked on our gear and items, we headed out again. I looked forward to travelling with this rag tag group and seeing the world properly for the first time.
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