I Was Mistaken for a Saint in a Dark Fantasy

A few days had passed since the sudden encounter with the Rank 2 Black Magician and the strange meeting with the Old Mage named Fitz.

Nothing special happened after that.

I went down to the Limbus Pit with Erika and treated people.

“Parabam parabam~”

There, I even shattered my calm persona and hummed a ridiculous little tune.

This was because my current patient was an 8-month-old baby.

“Bibbidi-Bobbidi-Boo...”

A doctor's greatest nemesis is a baby.

—You’re the world’s best doctor from Harvard Medical School? So what. I’m still going to cry.

In front of a baby, all of a doctor's skills and knowledge are useless.

Against a doctor, babies are invincible gods.

That's why you have to set aside your dignity and authority when dealing with them.

“Lulili lallala...”

And this song was a skill created by pediatricians to give babies injections.

First, you captivate the child with a song or a toy, then you give them the injection without them noticing.

For the record, I didn't think this skill would shatter my noble persona.

After all, a doctor should be willing to play the clown, bang their head on the hospital floor, and throw a tantrum in front of a politician for their patient's sake.

At least, that's what I was taught.

Though the peers from my era were too stiff-necked.

"Teacher..."

Fortunately, my efforts didn't lead to a character collapse for the calm Yulian.

Instead, I could feel that both Erika and the baby's mother were looking at me with eyes full of respect.

...It is a look of respect, right?

It's not a look of pity, is it?

"Edan, want to see this? What is this?"

"Babububa!"

Anyway.

After about fifteen minutes of effort, the baby's state of alert finally crumbled.

The baby's gaze was fixed on the beak of my mask.

Taking advantage of the distraction, I jabbed the baby's thigh with a 3x3 grid needle.

It was a vaccine with an attenuated virus, made by mixing cow pus with diluted holy water.

Though it's slightly different in the strictest sense, I call it the cowpox method for convenience.

Poke.

A dot-like mark was left on the baby's thigh.

The baby blinked, as if realizing it had been tricked, but the injection was already done.

"Edan is healthy. You don't need to worry about syphilis."

"Oh, thank you, Teacher."

The baby's mother sighed in relief.

I pinched the cheek of the baby, who was staring at my beak with bright eyes.

"By the way, Teacher. What was that you just did to Edan's thigh?"

"It's a kind of spell that makes one healthier. You can think of it as an enhancement engraving."

"Ah, I see."

Edan's guardian nodded.

It was still a bit too early to preach the concept of a vaccine to this world.

So, I had babies at the 1, 3, 6, and 12-month marks come to the hospital periodically under the pretext that they might have syphilis, and secretly gave them vaccinations.

If I get caught, I could be executed by burning... but well, I'm sure the power of the misunderstanding genre will handle it somehow.

"You may go, Mother."

"Thank you, Teacher."

After sending off the eventful 8-month-old pediatric patient.

As I was cleaning up the injection needles, Erika spoke to me.

"By the way, Teacher. Was that really an enhancement engraving?"

"Yes."

It is an enhancement engraving.

Since it grants immunity to several plague-type curses.

Even nobles cover themselves in holy relics to ward off plague curses.

Considering that, wouldn't you say a vaccination is an enhancement engraving?

"Were you also a Carvedoc, Teacher?"

"Not a Carvedoc, but I have studied the subject."

Carvedoc is the name for people who perform engravings.

For the record, even though the word 'Doctor' is in the name, they weren't medical professionals.

They were closer to tattooists who carve tattoos on people's bodies.

Not knowing this, I studied that field diligently just because 'Doctor' was at the end.

By the time I realized my mistake, it was too late, so I just studied it to the end.

"A true genius really does study for a hobby..."

But that study wasn't a complete wasted effort.

Thanks to it, another one of Erika's misunderstandings about me was added to the list.

Well, if I think of it as an element that reinforces my persona, perhaps it's not all bad.

Just as I was preparing to see the next patient.

Erika, who was organizing the records for Edan who had just left, clicked her pen and spoke up.

"By the way, Teacher. I'm asking this seriously, but instead of putting on those cute antics with all your might like you just did, wouldn't it be better to just take off that mask?"

"..."

"Honestly, I think that's the reason kids cry the moment they see you."

I silently stroked the beak of my plague doctor mask.

And I shook my head.

"I don't think things would change even if I took it off."

The proof was our youngest child, Fried.

He seems to cry whenever he sees me.

This face of mine certainly does look too gloomy.

"It seemed Fried didn't like my face very much either."

"I heard about that from Freya. Apparently, it's because you poke Fried's thigh with a needle every time you see him."

"..."

I ignored Erika's words and turned towards the entrance.

"Next patient."

***

After the clinic hours ended.

For the first time in a while, I headed to Wangcho's restaurant for my research.

"Wangcho. I'm here."

"Teacher, you've arrived? By the way, what kind of research are you doing now that you're buying so many eggs? And only fertilized eggs at that."

"They all have their uses."

The research I was currently obsessed with was vaccine research.

The reason was none other than the grimoire of the Black Magician, Belgian.

The grimoire he left behind contained detailed information on Ghoul-type magic and Plague Curse-type magic.

Among them, what caught my attention was the plague curse part.

'Biological immunity nullified a magical curse.'

If so, couldn't the reverse be possible?

That was the idea that started this research.

The biggest reason vaccines couldn't be made in this world was the lack of any means to control viruses or germs.

At least for the smallpox vaccine, the cowpox method existed, but not for other vaccines.

In such a situation, the plague curse Belgian left behind was a most welcome guest.

Finally, I had a way to control viruses or germs as I pleased.

'Of course, I can't just cast this on people directly.'

Existing curses have no concept of control.

They were curses made to kill in the first place; there's no way their power could be adjusted.

If I went around casting this on people calling it a vaccination, I wouldn't be the protagonist, I'd become this other world's Hitler.

So I decided to reference the way vaccines were made in the 21st century.

'The Fertilized Egg Cultivation Method.'

It was the most common and traditional method used in modern medicine to mass-produce vaccines like the flu vaccine.

It was a technique where a virus was literally injected into a fertilized egg before it hatched to be cultivated.

With this method, I wouldn't have to do the crazy act of casting a curse directly on a person.

The plan was to cast a plague curse on the egg, and later extract and purify only the attenuated virus from it.

"Teacher. Can you really not tell me?"

"I cannot. It's confidential."

Naturally, this entire series of research was being conducted by me alone, in secret.

Black magic itself is not a taboo.

If you asked which was crueler, burning someone to death or making them die from a disease, it would be hard to say one was worse than the other.

Likewise, as long as black magic wasn't used directly for criminal acts, research into it as a field of academia wasn't completely banned by the church or the Empire.

However, considering the primal hatred and rejection people of this world held for black magic, it would be difficult to receive favorable glances even in a back alley like this.

Moreover, in a world without the concept of vaccines, I couldn't just plainly state my plan to inject curses into people's bodies.

Of course, that wasn't the only reason.

Originally, research dealing with viruses or germs prioritizes safety above all else.

But in this world, which lacked even the concept of hygiene, finding someone who could follow all the safety protocols was no easy task.

That's why, for safety's sake, I was conducting this research alone.

"Tch... I understand."

Wangcho nodded, looking displeased, as if my true intentions had been conveyed.

But since he didn't seem fully convinced, I lowered my voice as much as possible and spoke.

"I'm sorry, Wangcho. This research is so dangerous that one wrong move could put everyone involved at risk."

Hearing my words, the color drained from Wangcho's face in an instant.

"Hiek!"

But contrary to my intentions, Wangcho seemed to have misunderstood in a different direction.

"I understand. I will absolutely, positively not let anyone loiter near the laboratory. And I will make sure no one can spy on your research, Teacher."

"There's no need to go that far..."

Tch.

As soon as the misunderstanding about me not having burn scars was cleared up, a new one was added.

I debated whether to clarify again, but I decided to just leave it.

I realized from the Belgian incident last time that misunderstandings can't be resolved with words.

The misunderstanding will clear up on its own once the research is done. And it doesn't matter if it doesn't.

Finding it too bothersome to make excuses, I just gave a noncommittal nod.

In fact, a misunderstanding like that might even be more helpful for maintaining security sometimes.

"Erika. Grab the eggs. We're going to the clinic warehouse."

"Are you going to use all of these for your research?"

"... Don't feel bad about it, I'll cook the unfertilized eggs for you separately."

"Then I want an omelette."

"Alright."

An excited Erika picked up the basket full of fertilized eggs with both hands.

Her physical strength, growing by the day, was now at a level I could no longer match.

We headed to my small, personal laboratory, set up behind the clinic.

My personal laboratory in the Limbus Pit was a converted warehouse.

"Erika. You can go wait outside."

"Okay~"

After confirming that Erika had left the laboratory.

Left alone, I locked the door firmly and began preparations for the experiment.

'First, Belgian's grimoire.'

I turned the dial of the safe and took out the cow pus and Belgian's grimoire from inside.

Then I opened the lid of the jar and spread out Belgian's notebook next to it.

[Sanio et Putro. (Pus and Rot.)]

I felt the magical power drain from my body.

I couldn't cast magic elsewhere, but within the laboratory, I could cast a fair amount of magic.

The reason I couldn't become a Mage in the first place was that I lacked the talent to grasp the state of variables in an uncontrolled environment.

In other words, even I could cast magic freely as long as the conditions were in a controlled environment.

'At least I can say I'm a wizard, even if I'm not a Mage.'

In the first place, most research-type wizards who couldn't become Mages were my type.

They could all cast a certain amount of magic within their own laboratories or workshops.

Even then, it required extremely fussy conditions to be met, like the magic not working the next day if a cleaner came through once.

[Morde Cuten Eos (Gnaw their skin.)]

As the chant continued, a whitish smoke rose from the jar of pus.

It was a different color from Belgian's black smoke.

Only the catalyst was slightly different, but I wasn't sure why it caused such a difference.

This was a problem I would have to figure out little by little.

[Efflora, Morbiflos (Bloom, Flower of Plague.)]

Finally, the chant ended.

A white mist, following the runic formula I had set, enveloped a tray of eggs on the experiment table.

I observed the eggs carefully, then picked out ten.

"Twenty misfires..."

Since I was adapting a curse meant for humans to affect eggs, the misfire rate was quite high.

I dipped those ten eggs into holy water.

No matter how much I had weakened its power with the runic formula, it was fundamentally a curse designed to kill people.

For an egg to withstand such a curse, the help of holy water was indispensable.

'Making a vaccine from a biochemical weapon, of all things.'

Usually, the order would be the opposite.

With a self-deprecating smile, I put the remaining ten eggs into an insulated box.

I wrote today's date on the box and pushed it into a corner of the laboratory.

Then I pulled out the box that was originally there, marked with a date from four days ago.

These were the ones I had injected with the curse in the same way four days ago, suppressing its power with diluted holy water and placing them in the incubator.

"Now, let's see."

Inside the box were six eggs.

With a bit of hope and tension, I brought an egg under the light.

If it was a success, when I shone a light through the egg, a chick embryo would be squirming inside.

'First one is...'

The inside of the egg, illuminated by the light, was murky, stained a dark brownish-black like gutter water.

It felt strange even before I shone the light on it.

Because there were fine cracks all over the shell, as if it had rotted.

With a bitter smile, I tossed the first egg into the disposal bin.

"Next..."

The second egg.

It was a pretty shell on the outside.

But when I shone a light through it, I saw nothing but pus inside, let alone an embryo.

It was a failure.

"Next."

The third... the fourth...

And the sixth.

"Another failure this time, too..."

I let out a dejected sigh and touched my forehead.

Not a single one of the six fertilized eggs had survived.

All of them had either rotted black, burst with pus and reeked, or shriveled up.

'Either the curse's power was too strong, or the holy water's suppressive force was too weak.'

But I couldn't use too much holy water either.

Because that would kill the curse itself.

'There are too many things to adjust.'

First, I need to modify the runic formula to work better on chicks, find a way to lower its power even more, and balance it with the holy water.

'Hoo...'

It had been a long time since I felt this lost, not since the Quinine.

I remember trying to boil and fry the sap, thinking it was the raw material, only to later discover that in this world, the bark was the raw material.

'Well, that's what research is like.'

Especially magic research.

Unlike science, there's no feedback upon failure.

When magic fails, it just takes your magical power and gives you no clues as to why it failed.

This was also written in detail in the grimoire that the Mage named 'Fitz' gave me.

'That elder also failed his research on holy water thousands of times.'

The grimoire he gave me detailed his journey to discover magic that used holy water as a medium.

The research journal, which still seemed to be in progress, had its last entry at record number 5214.

'Compared to him, this is only my 15th failure.'

Isn't academia originally a record of failures?

So even if I failed today, I wasn't particularly impatient.

I was still only 12 years old, and I had too much life left to live.

'And above all, I'm the protagonist of a misunderstanding genre.'

I chuckled and cleaned up the box.

And in my research journal, I recorded the details of today's experiment, along with points for improvement.

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