AWDC Chapter 3

It was about a month since I started living with Ilse. After finishing dinner, I was by the hearth as usual, listening to the old woman tell me about the village.

“Ilse, are you home?” Along with the sound of knocking on the door, a loud female voice called out.

When I opened the door, it was Tom, the carpenter who lived next door, and his wife.

Tom was standing, supported by his wife’s shoulder.

“Oh, what’s wrong?”

“I’m sorry to bother you so late, Ilse.

The thing is, my husband went to repair the lord’s mansion, and after being treated to sake, he got drunk and tripped on the stone steps on the way home.

It doesn’t seem like he broke his leg, but he hit his thigh pretty hard.

He can walk if he pushes himself, but he won’t be able to work tomorrow like this.

I can’t exactly say that I can’t do the lord’s work because I got drunk on sake and sprained my leg, can I?

I thought that Toma, who fixed Ilse’s knees, might be able to do something,”

It was Cathy, the red-faced woman who spoke to me when I went to the well for the first time, who started speaking in a loud voice.

Supporting Tom firmly with those thick arms, she could be called a strong woman.

“Toma, will you take a look at him?” Around this time, I had become Ilse’s pride and joy.

After all, she had been struggling to walk due to knee pain, but now she could go anywhere with that Supporter. So, the old woman praised me as a very clever child and told everyone in the neighborhood about it.

I felt embarrassed. But for the old woman, who had been living alone for a long time and somehow managed to get by with the help of her neighbors, she probably wanted to brag even a little. I didn’t say anything, thinking that much was okay.

Hearing that story, Cathy probably thought that I might be able to heal Tom’s injury, so she came. I couldn’t possibly turn her down.

“Does it hurt here?” I touched Tom’s thigh while checking his condition.

“It doesn’t seem like there’s anything wrong with the bone, so I’ll stop the bleeding with a bandage today and apply some pain-relieving medicine. Let’s see how it goes in the morning after you put on the Supporter.”

It wasn’t a fracture but a bruise, and the injury wasn’t deep. It should heal naturally, but since Tom had work tomorrow, I wanted to suppress the pain and heal him enough so that he could walk on his own if possible.

Tom was my next-door neighbor, and he had taken care of Ilse in various ways since she became alone.

Ilse couldn’t cultivate all of her fields by herself, so she lent the field to Tom. In return, Tom shared his vegetables with her. It was a mutually beneficial relationship.

The next morning, Tom’s thigh was swollen with bluish-black discoloration. There was internal bleeding, but most of the bleeding had been stopped. The pain remained, but it wasn’t so bad that he couldn’t walk.

I replaced the bandage with a new one and put on the Supporter.

“What kind of magic is this? I can walk properly. I can go to work like this!”

Tom’s joy was considerable. He excitedly started preparing to go to work.

“Don’t get carried away and go drinking again today, you!”

Cathy didn’t forget to give him a warning.

There was no doubt that the Tom household was ruled by his wife.

Tom couldn’t argue and headed towards the lord’s house.

“That good-for-nothing gets carried away easily, so it’s always a worry.”

While saying that, she folded her thick arms and watched Tom until he disappeared from sight.

Even though it was offered by the lord, if he got drunk and injured himself, and it interfered with his work, he wouldn’t be able to make excuses.

If he messed up, he might even be banned from entering the lord’s place. It seemed like she couldn’t hide her worries.

And even though she said that, Cathy was also in love with Tom.

That was an undeniable fact.

After that, I went to check on Tom every morning, but the injury was minor, and the wound was almost closed after five days.

“You’re fine now. The pain will still remain for a while, but it shouldn’t interfere with your ability to move your body.”

“Ah, I’m really grateful. Thank you.”

“Really. If Toma wasn’t here, he might have messed up the lord’s work.

Um, this is just a small token of my gratitude.”

What Cathy offered was money.

“No, I can’t accept that.

We’re neighbors, so it’s natural to help each other out.

I don’t know how much Tom and Cathy have taken care of me so far.”

I firmly refused the reward.

Besides being neighbors, this village mostly relied on bartering.

Money was only used when dealing with merchants from other places.

The villagers lived by sharing their surplus goods and desired items with each other.

I thought it would be awkward to use money just for healing a minor injury.

Besides, I didn’t have the self-awareness to make medicine my profession.

From the fact that I healed Tom’s injury, I started getting requests for medical treatment from the villagers.

“My child has a fever. It might be a cold.”

“I burned my hand.”

“I broke my arm. Please do something.”

The things brought to me weren’t particularly serious, but they were diverse.

I carefully treated each one of them.

After all, there was no doctor in this village, and when a sick or injured person appeared, they had to be taken to a town far away.

Moreover, minor injuries and illnesses were mostly treated with folk remedies.

Many of these were based on misinformation, and they were mostly ignorant about medicinal herbs.

I had been helping the old woman with her field for a while, and I had been gradually collecting herbs that seemed useful.

And when I started getting requests for medical treatment from the villagers, I started going outside the village in earnest to collect herbs.

The villagers were poor, so I didn’t ask for payment, and Ilse told me that was a good thing.

“The villagers are all like family. You can’t take money from family, can you?” That was the old woman’s catchphrase.

Instead, the villagers shared vegetables, cow and goat milk, and fish caught from the river.

Even if they weren’t sick or injured, the villagers would bring things to my house, saying it was surplus.

If I was there, they wouldn’t have to go all the way to town to see a doctor.

They might have ulterior motives like that, but they were truly kind people.

Also, helping people in need brought a really good smile to their faces.

That was the greatest joy as a doctor.

I was strongly reminded of that.

In any case, every time I treated a sick or injured person, memories from my previous world would come back.

Encouraged by that, I actively went out to collect herbs.