Wiping away the clotted blood, I examined the wound again. It was an open pneumothorax, the wound tunneling to the outside so air leaked through.
Without proper medical equipment, a perfect seal was impossible, but I had to block the hole somehow. I layered cloth as thickly as I could and packed the wound.
If I sealed everything, air trapped in the lung wouldn’t escape and it could tip into a tension pneumothorax. I covered three sides and left one side loosely overlaid to create a vent.
“Kallen, bandage.”
“Y-yes! But I don’t think it’s clean.”
We didn’t even have anything to disinfect with. Infection worried me, but keeping the patient alive came first.
It was a tricky task; the bandage had to pass behind his back while we lifted a pneumothorax patient.
As I floundered, Ella helped. With telekinesis she lifted Leobin into the air, and I was able to wrap the bandage smoothly.
“Do we have anything like tape?”
“What’s tape?”
“Anything that sticks. We need to secure this so the bandage doesn’t come loose.”
Unlike other wounds, tying a pneumothorax dressing tight was dangerous. It would block the path for air to escape.
At my order, Kallen scrambled through the bag. She couldn’t find anything suitable.
“Hiyung!”
Then Rami sprang onto the bandage. With her tiny feet she carefully stomped the anchoring points.
A black substance oozed from the shadow lizard’s footpads. When {N•o•v•e•l•i•g•h•t} I touched it with a finger, it was sticky and viscous.
It soaked quickly into the bandage and set in place as it was shaped. It worked as an adhesive better than tape.
“Good job, Rami. But what is this?”
“Hiyung!”
Rami lifted her head stiffly and trilled with pride. Whatever it was, it was useful.
With Kallen and the monsters’ help, I continued the emergency care.
Where the tibia had protruded, I tied above and below with leather thongs for hemostasis and set a splint. I aligned the angle of the broken ankle as best I could and fixed it.
When the care was done, everyone was spent. Kallen fell asleep as if fainting; Rami flipped on her back and panted; Ella went outside the cave to fill her empty stomach.
I checked Leobin one last time. His labored breathing had eased, if only a little.
Only then did the tension release. Having burned through every scrap of strength, my legs gave out and I dropped onto my seat.
“Drink.”
As I leaned against the cave wall, Varen sat beside me and handed me a waterskin. I gulped the cold water and my head cleared.
Somehow sunlight was pouring outside the cave. Half a day had passed while we treated the patient.
“Haa... thought it was going to kill me....”
I didn’t know how long I could keep Leobin alive, but I’d bought him at least a day.
That was enough. A doctor’s duty is to get the patient through today.
“Why did you save that human?”
Varen asked in a flat voice. A light question, but far too philosophical. My exhausted mind ached worse.
Even so, I couldn’t ignore him; I kneaded my stiff neck and gave a rough answer.
“I couldn’t just let him die.”
“He wouldn’t have died even if you did nothing.”
“Didn’t you see? It’s a miracle he made it this far alive.”
“I’m certain. He wouldn’t have died.”
He could say that after seeing the patient’s state? A torn lung and bones poking through. Irritation surged up.
Varen only looked at Leobin lying like a corpse. Then he tossed out a single line.
“There’s magic on the human.”
The irritation that had flashed up sank at once.
I looked back at Leobin, eyes wide. You couldn’t see magic on the surface.
“What kind of magic?”
“I don’t know. Very powerful magic.”
“Powerful magic?”
“Yes. It’s annoying.”
He’d said the same yesterday. He’d said Leobin, trailing us and reeking of blood, was annoying.
“If it’s annoying, you mean it’s magic? Not a curse?”
“It’s magic, but it could be a curse. He wouldn’t escape it even in death.”
A hairline crack ran through his usually blank face. Varen frowned between the brows, looking between me and Leobin.
“The end of that magic is connected to you.”
“...What?”
My overloaded brain couldn’t process any more input. I only blinked, stupidly.
Varen added, not very kindly:
“More precisely, it’s bound to you. Beyond death.”
“......”
“So he couldn’t die as he pleased and kept following you.”
A flash of last night’s image skimmed my eyes—Leobin walking like a corpse.
Come to think of it, being alive didn’t make sense. How had he survived days with a torn lung?
No, even walking forest paths with the left tibia broken and the right ankle bent was impossible.
I’d thought it was a miracle he was alive. It wasn’t that.
Leobin couldn’t die.
“Why... who would put that kind of magic on him....”
“Ask him yourself.”
Varen left the short answer and stood. Without thinking, I caught his trouser leg.
He’d been distant with me lately, but today he was too cold.
“Wait, Varen. Are you angry?”
“No.”
“Then what is it?”
He’d looked ready to head out of the cave, but when I grabbed him, he didn’t. Instead he sighed, long and heavy, wearing a complicated face. He scrubbed his hands down his face and spoke in a voice that crawled.
“Can’t we kill that human?”
“What? Hey, how can you say that. We just managed to save him.”
“Haa....”
No matter how great his anger toward humans, this wasn’t it.
Kallen, Ella, Rami, and I had all stayed up the night giving care.
When I stood to face him, Varen flinched a step back. Even that rubbed me wrong.
“Why do you want to kill him? He’s not even dangerous.”
“He is.”
The chill in his eyes made unease prickle. I slid in between Leobin and Varen.
Who knew what might set this dragon off enough to kill a patient.
“What’s dangerous. Say it straight. We just saved him—don’t threaten to kill him.”
I narrowed my eyes and glared. Varen met me with a look full of discontent.
He hesitated for a long time, then lifted a hand and set it on my head. His expression pinched tighter.
“Your life force is leaking out. Into that human.”
“...What?”
“I’m not sure how, but it looks like magic that protects you in exchange for receiving your life.”
My life force was bleeding into Leobin? Was that even possible?
Well, he’d followed me like a corpse, unable to die even in death.
Above all, with a dragon in front of me, weighing real-world plausibility in a fantasy world was pointless.
I opened and closed both hands. Against my will, they trembled; I couldn’t make a proper fist.
Lately, my body had been strangely weak. I’d chalked it up to sleep deprivation and forced marches.
In truth, it was proof a dying body had been coming closer to me.
“...Are you sure?”
“I’m sure. Among humans, you have a lot of life force. That’s the only reason you’ve held out this long.”
The palm on my head slid down. This time he cupped my face in one hand.
Skinship after so long felt embarrassingly ticklish. When I glanced up awkwardly, Varen’s face was full of worry.
His emotions were so transparent that the corner of my mouth twitched on its own.
Now I understood why he’d been on edge from the moment he sensed Leobin’s presence, and why he’d kept so quiet while I treated the patient.
“By your logic, I can keep holding out.”
“But...”
“Hey, you said I had a lot of life. If I can share a little and keep a patient alive, that’s good news.”
“...Haa....”
Even his sighs that sounded like the ground was caving in only made me laugh now.
I’m me, but he’s him, too. There isn’t a more overbearing dragon anywhere.
I smiled to reassure him and took hold of Varen’s wrist, still cupping my face. I meant to peel off the embarrassing skinship, but he held tight and didn’t let go.
Recently he’d thrown a fit if even my fingertips brushed him, telling me to move. It had been a while since he’d clung; secretly, I was glad.
“Brat, don’t worry so much. From now on I’ll sleep more, and eat—mmph.”
It happened in the blink of an eye.
A hand the size of a pot lid clamped my jaw and fixed it, and Varen pressed his mouth to mine without hesitation.
Circuits froze at the kiss that came with no warning. For a second I wondered if, like last time, this was a dream, but the heat and softness were far too vivid.
“Mm—mmph!”
I didn’t know when it had lashed out, but a golden tail cinched tight around my waist. I’d been happy every time I saw it; not today.
A beat late, I shoved at Varen’s shoulder with all I had. Of course, there was no way my strength could push a dragon.
My face flushed with the strain, grunting. I twisted my whole body, but I couldn’t slip free of that thick tail and those hard arms.
“Mmff! Mmph!!”
Then something even hotter slid in through my lips. My eyes flew open.
Without a blink, Varen was pushing his tongue into me. In the blue of his eyes there was even a ripple of pleasure.
In that instant, the feeling that flashed across my mind was, strangely, offense.
You little brat—what do you think you know, kissing me.
“Mm!”
“Augh!”
By instinct I clamped my mouth shut. Even with a body of steel, a tongue is soft. I could repel a dragon by biting down on that gelatinous slug.
I slipped out of his hold while he gasped in pain. As I sucked in the breath I’d been holding, my lips felt wet.
Not content with shoving in his tongue, he’d left me soaked in spit.
Not even of age yet, body and mind still unripe—what in the world did he think he knew, kissing me?
And not just a kiss, but a deep kiss at that.
