◈ 404. [Side Story] Oath (2)
Raven looked down at himself who couldn’t move properly and let out a puzzled voice.
“what? why? why? Did I stop now?”
“Well, your soul may have already rotted and been used as fertilizer… It seems that this oath remains in your memory.”
I just told you the name of the oath from which I had recited the first line.
“’The Oath of Defender of Mankind’.”
《… !》
Just like the doctors of the Earth recited the Hippocratic Oath.
An oath that doctors swear on the day they get their license here in the Lake Kingdom.
Raven’s smog body flinched backwards like a wave. I grinned.
“Yeah, do you remember now?”
“no way… .》
“This is an oath that you recited in front of people here in the city square after you obtained your medical license when you were a normal human being!”
In the game, there is a slate that can be found while clearing the dungeon ‘Hospital’.
On the stone tablet, you can find a note left by someone with the contents of this ‘Oath to Protector of Humanity’ – < In memory of all the guardians who fought against the plague >.
Afterwards, when you encounter Raven, if you read the contents of this slate in advance, you can use the gimmick of reciting the contents of this slate to him.
The effect is only 1 turn, but completely neutralizes it.
In the game, the difficulty of clearing varied greatly depending on whether or not this gimmick was used, so I always put top priority on clearing the dungeon ‘Hospital’ before facing Raven.
But here in reality?
You don’t even have to go to that dungeon. Because I memorized this oath after reciting it so tediously in the game!
I continued to recite the ‘Oath to Protect Humanity’.
“However, I will abide by all legal systems for the benefit of mankind.”
“stop… .》
“However, I will follow the highest standards of moral values under any circumstances.”
“stop! Stop!”
Raven screamed in pain.
Why is this monster, who has fallen into the abyss of evil, shaken by such an oath?
don’t know
Some people look at gold coins, others look at portraits, reminding themselves that they were human.
Some people may remember that they were once human when they hear the oath they recited.
However, what is certain is that this functions as a ‘gimmick’ for attacking. Then the fact that I will actively use it for boss skills… … !
“Hana, from this moment on, I will live for the welfare and happiness of suffering humankind.”
“I told you to stop!”
Raven rushed towards me, scattering terrible energy.
The Crown and Nightcrawler troops, and now even the Sword Ghost and the Window, stepped forward to block such a Raven with their bodies.
Of course I don’t stop.
“However, I respect all life and will never allow any life to be neglected.”
Raven advances by rotting and burning all life in front of her eyes.
“However, I will always use all my knowledge and abilities to do my best for the survival of mankind.”
Even though Raven was stopped, she spread all her malice and curses and succeeded in crushing the Eternals in front of her eyes.
The moment the raven flew in with the hot wind finally arrived in front of my eyes.
“However, I fully understand my responsibilities and obligations as a protector of mankind, and I will voluntarily carry out all these provisions based on this… .”
I was already reading the last line of the oath.
I opened my eyes and glared at the creature’s blurry form as I uttered the last sentence.
“I solemnly swear.”
rattle.
And Raven came to a complete standstill.
Right in front of us, the smog-like form froze and became motionless.
The ‘complete neutralization’ effect provided by this gimmick lasts only 3 minutes per turn.
We have to kill him in these three minutes… … !
“everyone!”
I turned to my party members and shouted.
“Finish him!”
***
Being incapacitated, Raven was looking at the past.
The past, hundreds of years ago, when he was still human.
***
In the Lake Kingdom, being a doctor was a despised profession.
In this state-of-the-art magical city, where magical miracles always hang, the royal family and citizens did not have to rely on medicine.
Any disease could be cured with just a few magic tricks.
The more magic developed, the more people’s health became magic. Medicine naturally lost its authority.
But there was still a need for a doctor.
It was the slave class that could not reach the benefits of magic – those who were called ‘non-citizens’ in the kingdom.
For those unable to bask in the magical light, scalpels, bandages, and medicine were needed.
They were called non-citizens and treated with contempt, but without them, there would be no manpower to replace all the trivial chores in the city.
A doctor who would be responsible for their survival was always needed, so medicine could remain alive.
In this era of medical decline, a boy was born.
Among the citizens of the Lake Kingdom, the boy was from a high-ranking aristocrat close to the royal family.
The boy suffered an aftereffect that could not be cured by magic after contracting an unknown epidemic as a child.
After that day, the boy decided to walk the path of medicine.
Not only his parents, but also his family members and even the neighboring nobles dissuaded him, but the boy began to study medicine and eventually entered the hospital where the doctor who treated him worked as an apprentice.
It was at this time that the boy was completely abandoned by his family.
The day when a gifted boy obtained his doctor’s license after a long apprenticeship. The day the boy read the ‘Oath to Protector of Humanity’ in a clear voice in the plaza.
“I solemnly swear to devote my life to serving humanity.”
Everyone laughed at this aristocratic boy who had devoted his life to the lowly studies of non-citizens. By his own will, he gave up the solid roads of his aristocratic family and headed down to a filthy, low place
, where he was derogatoryly nicknamed ‘Raven’
– a crow born among swans .
The boy actually liked the nickname and went so far as to call himself Raven.
***
Because Raven came from a noble family, she was also very talented in magic.
He combined magic with conventional medicine.
This treatment, which he named ‘magic medicine’, was so effective that it succeeded in curing not only non-citizens, but also rare incurable diseases suffered by citizens and royalty.
“There is no disease that cannot be cured by combining magic and medicine.”
Young Raven was always confident.
However, there were also many who disapproved of his attempts.
The wizards of the city disdained attempts to combine noble magic with medicine and the like.
Many feared that the secrets of magic might be leaked to non-citizens.
Opinions were divided even among medical students.
So far, medicine has been on its own path separate from magic science, so it has been able to treat the parts that magic science can’t reach.
Raven was an outcast even among medical students. They were openly criticized as ‘white crows trying to blend in with the black crows’.
But Raven didn’t care.
He had no doubt that he was walking the path of truth.
Above all, it was because he was always supported by his mentor – the doctor who healed him as a child.
“What does it matter what the means are? I know that you are a medical student who is trying harder than anyone else to save people. Regardless of what others say, go on the path you believe in.”
So the young Raven continued his research.
It was around the time that his fame grew, he got used to the jealous eyes of other medical students, and the magic tower in the city started paying attention to him.
A plague broke out in the Lake Kingdom.
It was a terrible plague. The heart of the Lake Kingdom, where purification magic always works, was peaceful as if nothing had happened, but the outer area was swept away by plague and devastated.
The non-citizens were left to rot alive.
Bodies piled up in every back alley, and the smoke of burning corpses filled the air.
Raven realized this the moment she first encountered this plague. This is a disease that cannot be dealt with with the current level of medicine in the Lake Kingdom.
He urgently wanted to create a medicine by mobilizing all his magic knowledge.
However, his knowledge of magic was shallow, and the recipe for the plague cure was not derived.
“No, no, it can’t go on like this… .”
Trembling, Raven glanced at the entrance of the hospital.
Fellow doctors were wearing black hoodie masks for gas and were preparing to go back to non-citizen residences.
Most of the doctors were already sick with the plague.
However, they were silently taking bandages and medicines while coughing bloody coughs.
“Stop it… .”
Raven ran out and said in a trembling voice. But the doctors didn’t listen and started going out one by one.
“Stop it! please! Everyone dies!”
Someone stood in front of Raven trying to stop him. He was Raven’s teacher.
“Raven. We are doctors and there are people out there suffering from illness.”
Even though he was coughing, the master whispered kindly.
“Have you forgotten the oath we made? As guardians of humanity, we have a duty to treat them to the best of our ability.”
“But Master… ! No pills yet! Wouldn’t that be dog death!”
“Not like that. He administers reagents to patients on the spot, monitors their reactions, and adjusts the medicines. Significant treatment results are coming out.”
The teacher’s skinny hand landed on Raven’s shoulder.
“Raven. I don’t have a talent for magic like you. I just show symptoms according to my experience and induce the patient’s symptoms to get better… … He was an idiot who was only interested in saving the person in front of him rather than pursuing the pursuit of learning.”
“No, Master… !”
“But there are also answers that can be reached with such a simple method.”
It seemed that the teacher’s warm smile could be seen through the crow’s mask.
“Raven, you stay here. I will make a medicine to cope with this plague, so you continue to make medicines that apply magic.”
So the doctors left for the battlefield.
Raven, who grieved at this, ran to the mage tower in the city.
“Help! please help! Requires an immediate dose of magic! Failure to do so in time will result in a terrible disaster for all who live on the outskirts of the city!”
But
“I refuse.”
The wizards of the Mage Tower refused.
“Magic requires a fair price. Non-citizens have neither the means to pay this price nor the qualifications to receive magic.”
“If you need anything in return, I will give you all my possessions! therefore… !”
“Money is not the problem Crow.”
The wizard glared at Raven without blinking an eye.
“Magic is a noble study for the people of the Lake Kingdom. Non-citizens are not included in that scope.”
“People’s lives depend on it, so what are you talking about now…?” … !”
“Your actions in the meantime are well known to all the wizards in the kingdom… I will not cooperate with you who blasphemed magic.”
The door of the mage tower closed with ridicule.
“Let’s deal with it with your proud ‘magic medicine’.”
bang!
Raven went back and forth until his feet were worn out at the countless mage towers lined up in the kingdom, but all the answers were the same.
Lastly, Raven visited the government office and warned that people outside would be killed in droves at this rate, but he had to listen to an absurd answer.
“If a non-citizen dies, just replenish it from outside the kingdom.”
“what… ?”
“It’s already been a headache to make the city messy, but wouldn’t it be possible to change all the chores in the city to magic automation? Oh, this is an official request to the royal family… … .”
“Fuck the bullshit, you crazy bastard!”
Raven, kicked out of the government office after punching the face of an official who calmly spit out crazy noises, trudged out.
“… .”
Returning to the hospital, Raven put the last crow mask on her face. It was a white crow mask that had not yet been colored.
And Raven entered the scene of the plague.
Three days later, when he found his master and colleagues.
Inside the tent set up at the simple clinic, all the doctors wearing black crow masks were coldly dead.
While studying the formulation of the medicine until the last moment, they fell over on a desk with messy reagents and flasks, lying dead.
In the innermost part of the tent, the Master was still breathing.
“Raven… . You came… … .”
“Master!”
“Here is the recipe for the medicine… . If you prepare it like this, you will be able to immunize against this plague and alleviate the symptoms… … .”
With trembling hands, Raven accepted the paper containing the recipe for the medicine, and her master’s hand gripped his wrist.
“Okay, Raven. Do not hate.”
“yes?”
“It is to pass this wisdom on to the next generation.”
Inside the black crow mask, the red bloodshot eyes of the master flashed.
“We made our sacrifices by making medicine… We are taking the next step for humanity… … We fought for it… … .”
“… .”
“Hate or not hate… Never forget the oath we made… … .”
Took.
The master’s arm fell to the floor.
Raven held back his sobs and took the recipe in his arms.
And with a determined expression, he stood up from his seat.
***
Raven tested the finished medicine on his own body, verified the effect through several patients, and went to the government office to request mass production and distribution of the medicine.
“It is a medicine that everyone in the hospital has built up after death. If you provide facilities to mass produce this, we can overcome the plague… … !”
However, the official looked at the reagents Raven handed over with a sad face, and then
sighed-!
threw it on the floor The bottle filled with reagents shattered.
Raven’s eyes widened as if they would explode.
“radish… What are you doing you crazy child! You know what this drug is!”
Raven, who tried to run away, was grabbed by other employees. The official sneered and opened his mouth.
“I guess you haven’t heard, Raven. We no longer need these drugs.”
“what?”
“The benevolent king of the Lake Kingdom has issued an order to mobilize all the magic towers. Wizards have already gone to non-citizen settlements and spread purification magic… … The plague will soon be subdued.”
Raven’s face darkened.
Looking down at Raven, the official laughed.
“Praise the benevolence of the king who grants magic even to non-citizens. And I hope you realize now just how inferior your humble ‘medicine’ is to magic! ha ha ha!”
It was as it was said.
The plague that took the lives of many non-citizens and many doctors was easily cleaned up with absurd ease when the wizards came forward.
Looking at the back alley of the Lake Kingdom, where all the sickness demons disappeared in less than a day, Raven collapsed in a daze.
Laughing at Raven, the wizards passed by.
“… With such power, why?”
Raven murmured quietly.
“Why didn’t you give… ? Why did you just watch while we died?”
Raven looked down at her hands. His body, which had already been infected with the disease, was half-rotten and was barely recovering.
Only then did Raven realize.
they don’t know the pain of illness.
There’s no way to know because I’ve always been enveloped in magical blessings and never fell ill.
The pain of identity.
The pain of discrimination.
I’ve never experienced it so I don’t know.
“Then I’ll let you guys know too.”
Putting on the crow mask that had been thrown off the floor again,
“the pain of decaying body, helplessness while patients, colleagues, and teachers die in front of my eyes, the despair that spreads without any help… .”
All the deaths I had to go through because I was not human.
“You too… I will definitely let you know… … !”
Even the magic of the Lake Kingdom… … no.
Raven decided to create a plague powerful enough to overcome all contradictions in this world.
The teacher’s will and the oath he made when he became a doctor.
The determination of a young day to save people.
It was after all had already been corroded by hatred and disappeared.
Raven headed to the hospital room for patients who had not yet been cured of the plague.
bang!
Raven opened the door of the hospital room roughly.
Patients cured by Raven’s medicine welcomed Raven when he entered.
“hello teacher!”
“Doctor! Thanks to you, I feel better! How should I repay this favor… … .”
“… everyone.”
Raven smiled at the people she saved and looked around, then asked in a cool voice.
“Because I need someone to help me ‘experiment’ a new drug… … Will you?”
On that day, one good died and
one evil was born in this world.
