The Villain Who Robbed the Heroines

It is commonly said that a cold is the root of all diseases, but that saying is half true and half false.

It’s just that symptoms related to a cold appear the same in most disease symptoms, not that they started from a cold.

But if it’s the case of a child with weak immunity, it’s also a valid saying.

Is that why?

The doctor who was examining Lobelia, who had fainted and collapsed, unknowingly bit his lip tightly.

The red spots called heat rash bloomed all over her body along with the accompanying high fever.

Whether this is meningitis or even sepsis.

Well, what meaning would that have?

If the former is left untreated, the latter will naturally occur in parallel for a child.

…It’s high.

Drawing Lobelia’s blood and sprinkling it into a long, transparent tube containing a specific substance, the precipitate exceeds more than half.

Evidence that the level of inflammation in the body is extremely high.

Since there were no medical records of illness, the doctor, who went through the basic examination process before using antibiotics, soon injected antibiotics into Lobelia’s skin - precisely, the thin epidermal layer.

Through parasites that use human corpses as hosts, doctors in this world have gone through countless clinical trials.

Among them, there were quite a few cases where they showed hypersensitivity to antibiotics and died, so they did a skin reaction test in advance like this.

The time it takes to know the results is about 10 minutes.

But looking at the child’s condition, even those 10 minutes seemed dangerous, so for now, he administered an IV drip mixed with antipyretics and turned his head back.

There, Lizzy was trembling with a shock that was not easily going away.

“Judging from the congested pupils, there is a high possibility of meningitis. If there is no hypersensitivity to antibiotics, it can be cured within a week.”

“If, if it does come out…”

“We can only hope that the child overcomes it on her own after consistently administering an IV drip mixed with antipyretics and controlling the fever as much as possible. If it doesn’t improve and takes a long time, sepsis will spread to the child’s body, and in the worst case, surgery is the only option… but as you know, the survival rate of pediatric laparotomy is not high.”

Pediatric surgery is a tendency that most doctors avoid even in the much more advanced modern times.

Even if they have sufficient skills, if the patient’s physical strength does not follow in the end, the result is table death.

Moreover, no matter how much medicine has advanced, what meaning would pediatric surgery have in this place, which is only a relative standard?

“So you irresponsible doctor…!”

“Yes. From the moment it goes beyond the scope of medical skills that can be deployed, a doctor has no choice but to become an irresponsible being to the patient. At best, it’s all about letting them pass away without pain or staying by their side and pronouncing death.” 𝑅

Looking at Lizzy’s face stained with sadness, shock, and anger, the doctor answered in a calm voice and then clenched his fist tightly.

Doctors are basically given various teachings, but the core of them is to make the patient give up what made them sick first.

However, that is the most difficult element to realize.

Alcohol.

Tobacco.

Drugs.

Even if the doctors forbid people from consuming those substances, how many would actually heed their prescriptions?

Even now, the doctor agonized countless times over whether he should say the words that had risen to the tip of his tongue, but in the end, he made a decision and continued speaking.

“A child who has started talking and can have conversations always says, ‘Why? What is that?’”

“Also, they purely spit out what they feel and the emotions they have, unlike adults. Saying they don’t like it, they like it, they’re hungry, they’re sick.”

However.

“Seeing that a child with a mild cold has reached this state… It seems like they didn’t say they were sick. Isn’t that right?”

“What made your daughter sick is an environment that doesn’t allow such expressions even to a child who has started talking.”n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

Seeing Lizzy trembling her lips without being able to say anything, the doctor turned his back.

Fortunately, since she didn’t show hypersensitivity to antibiotics, he mixes antibiotics into the IV fluid that is flowing in.

“…If you wish to have me punished for my words, feel free to do as you want. Regardless, I will come back later to check on the patient’s condition.”

Considering Louerg’s status different from the past, as a mere doctor, it was something he shouldn’t have said.

But he thought he had no regrets.

Is prescribing medicine, giving injections, and cutting flesh the only thing that makes a doctor?

Medicine started with the purpose of treating pain and easing the suffering of others.

After saying his piece, the doctor opened the door and left.

Flinch!

Yet, the one who greeted him was none other than the Lord of Louerg, who was quietly standing in the hallway.

“Did you… hear it?”

“Yes.”

The doctor’s whole body trembled at the condescending red eyes looking down at him, but he still didn’t utter an apology until the end.

And Ferzen Von Schweig Louerg, who continued staring at the doctor with an expressionless face, opened his mouth.

“You may go. If you had said sorry as soon as you saw my face, I would have thought it was a shallow belief, but it doesn’t seem like that’s the case.”

“Haha…”

In fact, the doctor was trembling with fear from the moment he saw Ferzen, thinking that he had said such things in vain a little while ago.

But when he saw Ferzen letting him go without saying anything special, the doctor rather let out a hollow laugh.

It’s just that his body had stiffened so much that he couldn’t say he was sorry.

Did he think I was brave for not running away? Even when the reason I didn’t run was because my body froze…

“Thank you.”

However, at Ferzen’s words that followed, he abruptly stopped and looked out the window where the sunlight was shining.

That he was ashamed not of his belief, but of himself who held that belief…

He thought it was fortunate.

*****Ferzen looked down at Lizzy, who was shedding tears with a haggard expression beside Lobelia, as he opened the door and entered.

It was as if she didn’t care about him at all, or perhaps she didn’t even sense his presence.

She was busy caressing her daughter’s gaunt cheeks with her slender hands and arranging the hair stuck to her forehead.

“Lizzy.”

“Is this what you wanted?”

“Get out…”

“It’s a request I can’t grant.”

Ferzen, who had been holding the diary he found in the child’s room before coming here, handed it over to Lizzy.

“Ah…”

「 August 19th. 」

-Big sis got sick today.

-Dad and big sis’s Mom love each other.

-Would Dad love Mom if I got sick too?

.

.

.

「 August 27th. 」

-I got sick.

-Will Dad and Mom be friends now?

-Will Dad come to my birthday this time?

.

.

.

「 September 1st. 」

-I had a fever!

-If I get sick for long…Then Mom and Dad will be friends for a long time!

The crude sentences were made up of crooked letters that were embarrassing to even call handwriting.

But rather, because of that, the emotions contained in Lobelia’s diary were conveyed directly without a shred of falsehood.

“Lizzy. I had a question from time to time.”

“If you truly wanted Lobelia to grow to hate me, why didn’t you show her me ‘abusing’ you or something like that? Of course, I only kept that question to myself until now. There was no point in provoking you for nothing.”

Lizzy’s method had some clumsiness to it, and Ferzen also responded shallowly without bothering to point that out.

Because at least he could immediately avoid being established as a completely misguided father to the child.

But after reading Lobelia’s diary, Ferzen changed his mind.

“Both you and I have merely been putting on a third-rate play with trivial details.”

“If not, this state of Lobelia wouldn’t have existed.”

Ferzen, who pulled up a chair and sat next to her, revealed his true feelings a bit more sincerely.

“Certainly, I expected you to be caught by maternal love and yield. From the fact that you wouldn’t take the same approach as me… You were a soft woman after all.”

Lizzy raised her head roughly at those words, glaring at Ferzen, but for some reason, her trembling lips couldn’t utter a single word.

“In reality, hasn’t your clumsy method and my shallow response produced such results? I believe you won’t ask what to do about it.”

Ferzen repeatedly clasped his hands tightly and loosened them for a while.

“So, Lizzy. I’ll throw away the shallow response that stemmed from the thought that you would yield someday. I’ll treat the child, and you, more cruelly. I’ll become a perfect tyrant so that you can’t have such hopes. But… Can you also throw away that clumsy method of yours?”

“Before Lobelia was born, you clearly told me. The position of being my wife and the mother of my child cannot take precedence over wishing for my misery.”

The more she is stained with misery and tainted with malice, the more sharply Lobelia will be honed.

But what about Lobelia now?

She was too blunt and dull to become a blade.

“If what you said that day is still valid… Don’t act clumsily and definitely make the child a dagger. Even if it’s a twisted path, it would be better for Lobelia to not be ambiguous. A dull blade doesn’t pierce the flesh at once, so it needs to be stabbed multiple times. The more you do that, the more the blade will be damaged. Is there a need to increase that pain?”

“Ha. Ahahaha…”

As Ferzen’s long speech ended, Lizzy burst into a hollow laugh and lowered her head.

“Unlike you, why won’t you use a way of speaking that puts all the guilt on me…?”

“To the end, do you really want to wear that hypocritical mask to the very end?”

“I have no intention of turning away from my responsibility as a parent. And I have never once been hypocritical.”

The kindness he once showed her was also used as the most efficient means in terms of inflicting pain, so it would be awkward to call it hypocrisy.

If one were to nitpick, could the act of sharing a part of the karma, assuming that Lizzy would crumble with her ankles caught by maternal love, be called hypocrisy?

But if you think about it, it would be closer to deception than hypocrisy.

“Never been hypocritical… Did you forget the day when you pretended to be insincere and said you would apologize to us as much as you want?”

“I was sincere. But it wouldn’t be unreasonable for it to be seen as hypocrisy covered with pretense. Perhaps even now, it may seem like I’m lying conveniently.”

“Ahah. Your life is so easy. You can just make it up however you want.”

“The fact that the sincerity was not accepted meant that I wouldn’t refuse the best or the worst. I wasn’t enough of a saint to quietly leave you guys preparing to cut my throat while repeating apologies that might work. In fact, after that day, was there ever a time when I didn’t exist as a villain in front of you?”

Lizzy.

“It’s your freedom to think I’m being hypocritical. I don’t want to beg you to believe it either. But if you really believe I’m a hypocrite, you who don’t want to resemble me…”

Why are you being hypocritical?

Adding those words, Ferzen slowly got up and left the room.