City of Witches

“How is he?”

Yebin was beyond astonished.

Due to how hard she concentrated, she wasn’t certain on how long it had been since she started the examination.

But, the reason why she was so surprised was because by the time she finished, Baroness Marigold was still outside, waiting for news to come out.

Yebin thought to herself that the Baroness must have cared a lot about the patient to be in this state.

At the same time, she felt burdenful and suffocated.

After all, she had to be the harbinger of the bad news, telling the Baroness outright that the patient she cared so much about was in a critical state.

“Before anything… I’ll tell you that it’s possible for him to recover…”

“Ah…”

Amelia’s legs lost their strength.

If it wasn’t for the fact that she met Yebin for the first time today, she would’ve collapsed on the floor already.

“But, his whole body is a complete mess. His vital organs are injured badly, his mana circuit is in an even worse state. If he didn’t receive any first-aid back then, it would’ve been impossible for him to recover… Thankfully, it wasn’t the case.”

“What exactly did you mean when you said that he has a possibility of recovering?”

“Can I write the details down first? I’ll present it to you after I’m done organizing everything.”

“Yes, you can. Thank you for your hard work.”

The long examination had tired her and she still had to write down a detailed explanation of its result.

Because of that, their conversation would only continue after they were done eating their dinner.

At the restaurant, Yebin showed Amelia a stack of charts detailing the results of her examination.

“This chart is a very brief summary of all his organs that need to be healed… I believe that we need to heal the injuries that riddle all over his body before we could move on to his brain.”

“…”

On the chart with the human anatomical system on it, lines were traced, displaying each of his organs and the drawn circles that represented his injuries.

It was easier to look for a spot that hadn’t been circled.

From his head to his toe, there wasn’t a place that was uninjured.

Though she was aware of how severe his condition was, Amelia’s mind still went blank when she saw exactly how bad it looked on a chart like this.

“Our priority should be to rebuild his body so that recovery magic could work on it… And… The next part is a little hard to say…”

“Please just tell me everything honestly. I need to understand his condition in detail.”

“Then, I’ll move on to the state of his brain.”

Yebin hesitated.

But, Amelia’s determined expression seemed to urge her to continue.

Seeing this, she pulled out a second chart.

A four page diagram of the brain structure.

“As you can see, his meninges¹Three layers of membranes that protects the brain and spinal cords. are damaged. Then, as seen in sections BA57, 54 and 44, his lateral ventricles²Paired C-shaped structures which produces the cerebrospinal fluid, which is a fluid that provides the brain with protection and nourishment, also functions as a waste removal. that were connected to his prefrontal cortex³The front part of the frontal lobe, also known as the ‘personality center.’ It’s the place where we process real-time input for our surroundings, compare that to our past experiences and give out a reaction based on the result of the comparison. are also severely damaged. His orbitofrontal cortex⁴The front part of the prefrontal cortex. It’s involved in someone’s decision-making process. is almost completely gone, probably because he received the damage through his left eye… It’s safe to say that his brain is in critical condition.”

Yebin paused in the middle of her explanation because Amelia was gazing at her as if the sky had collapsed.

It seemed like it would’ve been better if she were to present the result of her examination before dinner.

The rare feast that she had just eaten was twisting her stomach, making her feel constipated.

But, of course witches wouldn’t get constipated.

“Then, what’s going to happen…?”

“After the surgery, there may be various changes.”

“What kind of changes?”

“Firstly, the orbitofrontal cortex… It’s part of the brain that’s connected to numerous different sensory organs, such as receptors and pathways for taste, vision, smell and synesthesia. I can’t give you a definite answer on whether they will be functional after his resuscitation.”

“And?”

Yebin steeled her heart.

She was here as a doctor, not a witch.

And it was a doctor’s duty to objectively convey her patient’s condition.

“Additionally it’s also related to the limbic system, it also indirectly manages both desires and motivations. To be more specific, it develops a reward system⁵A natural process during which the brain associates diverent stimuli (substances, situations, events, or activities) with a positive or desirable outcome based on one’s desire and motivation, which is a huge part in the development of one’s social behavior. Because of this, learning disabilities might occur… And since it’s related to one’s desire, there might be a handicap in his sexual desire… Is it okay if I continue? If you’re having a difficult time, we can take a brief break.”

Amelia, who had been desperately holding back her tears, couldn’t hide them in the end.

Even as droplets trickled onto the back of her hand, she shook her head firmly.

Yebin let out a deep sigh as she continued.

“…In the case of the prefrontal cortex, it’s mostly responsible for ‘execution,’ as in decision making, situational behavior coordination, verbal expression and critical thinking. I’ve read some papers on patients with injuries to their prefrontal damage and after their recovery, they were ailed with high emotional dysfunction and they became more impulsive…”

Amelia looked so sorrowful that Yebin couldn’t add a comparison to her explanation. To put it shortly, there was a possibility that Siwoo could turn into a robot.

But not just any robot, but an immensely violent robot that would only adhere to its impulses.

“Will he turn out like that after his treatment?”

“May I use this plate for a moment?”

As Amelia briefly nodded, Yebin broke one of the dessert plates into pieces with her telekinesis.

Then she attempted to fit the dozens of pieces together as if she was solving a puzzle.

“This is what reassembling torn skins and bones look like. The cells are responsible for maintaining its structure and function, the pieces that need to be assembled are large in size too, so it won’t be too difficult. Even on the off-chance that the pieces are misaligned, the process can be restarted.”

Although the strength of her ‘surgical telekinesis’ was far weaker than the original, its delicate nature allowed it to easily piece the plate together without mistakes.

The plate that was once shattered had turned to its original form while being kept seemingly intact.

“However, it’s a different case for the brain.”

-Crack!

The plate broke into thousands of much smaller pieces.

“The brain’s ‘structure’ is closely related to its ‘function.’ It’s also by far the most delicate and sensitive organ in the human body. No matter how much time and effort I put in, it’s impossible to make it exactly the same as it was. This is the best I can do.”

Although the plate was restored as closely as possible to its original state, there was a spider web-like crack spread through its surface.

One could see empty gaps here and there at a glance as well.

“Are you sure you’ll be fine even if the patient—”

“His name is Shin Siwoo.”

“…Even if Mr. Shin Siwoo wakes up and becomes a different person than before?”

This was something that Yebin had to say.

Her job wasn’t only to tell Amelia that she’d save him.

She also had to, at the very least, respect the patient’s guardian’s will since it wasn’t like she could ask the comatose patient for his consent.

“I can assure you, even if someone other than me was here, they wouldn’t tell you anything different than what I’ve said.”

Amelia took out her handkerchief and wiped her tears. Her gesture looked elegant.

“I don’t care. This is something I have to shoulder on my own.”

She had hardened her resolve.

Since that was the case, the only thing Yebin needed to do was to treat Siwoo to the best of her ability.

“Then, I’ll explain my future plans to you.”

Yebin unfolded a paper containing the details of her plan for surgery in front of Amelia.”

“First, to restore the body before regenerating the brain, I’d have to restore some of its functions first. The brain has an attribute called neuroplasticity. It changes the placement of the neural circuits if they’re injured and pass the unsupervised role to the other parts of the brain. By inciting this attribute, we can activate the functions required for recovery. It’ll take around a month to get to this point. In addition, during this period, a ‘mapping’ of which part of the brain is responsible for which functions will happen.”

“I’ll provide you with the necessary resources.”

Yebin nodded and finished the rest of her explanation.

“After that, we can start to regenerate his ruined brain. I’ll focus on securing his original memory and functions as much as possible. When this process is over, the rearranged neural circuits will be placed back to its previous roles. However, no matter how perfect the recovery is, keep in mind that compared to his previous capabilities, there will be clear differences in performances in some of the restored functions.”

“Okay, when can you start?”

“I’ll write you down everything that I need, so can you please get them for me? I’ll start right away.”

Yerin was burning with enthusiasm.

But, it wasn’t because she was about to perform a surgery on a human, that was only secondary.

She was looking forward to relieving the Baroness’ anxiety, who was still shedding her tears in front of her.

Once again, she realized how precious a life was and how important her job was.

“I understand.”

With Amelia’s full cooperation, Siwoo’s treatment began.

2.

Yebin devoted sixteen hours a day to heal Siwoo.

Inside the room, the magic circles that slowed his biological clock were deployed.

While they served their purpose brilliantly for first-aid, they became hindrance when it came to the actual recovery of his body.

Her goal was to rebuild his body so that he wouldn’t die even if his biological clock was returned to its original state.

It took an immense amount of magic and stamina to restore just the recovery capabilities of his deteriorated cells.

What she was doing was essentially sewing his cells one by one by using both surgical touch and telekinesis.

“Phew…”

Still wearing a mask, Yebin sighed heavily as she blinked her blurry eyes.

It took her nearly three days to restore his ragged cardiopulmonary system.

‘Should I take a breather before continuing?’

When Yebin opened the door while holding her throbbing head, she was suddenly facing a certain pair of twin sisters.

They were so beautiful and looked similar to each other as if they were mirror reflections of each other.

“How is Mr. Assistant’s condition?”

“Is he okay…?”

The twins held each other’s hands while rolling their feet as they asked in desperation.

Yebin easily guessed their identities.

The apprentice witches of the Gemini household who managed to escape their demise thanks to Shin Siwoo’s magic.

“Ah, hello. My name is Yebin Smyrna.”

“Ah, I’m Odile Gemini.”

“My name is Odette Gemini.”

The twins were in such a hurry that they forgot their manners. Only now did they curtsy as they greeted Yebin.

Seeing their neat and precise movements, Yebin thought that they were amazing.

“I just finished restoring his cardiopulmonary system.”

“That’s a good thing, right?”

“It’s supposed to be relieving news, right?”

After seeing Yebin’s nod, Odile jumped up and down to express her gratitude.

Yebin only needed a glance to tell that they were extremely worried about him, she felt an unexplainably novel sensation as she witnessed this sight.

She could already tell that a lot of people held great affection for Siwoo, as seen from Baroness Avenega, who came to visit not too long ago and the owner of this mansion, Amelia. But these twins seemed to hold a greater fondness of him than the aforementioned two.

“Is it okay for us to go in now?”

“I want to see Mr. Assistant’s face…”

“No. He needs to rest for the time being… I don’t think you two can see him anytime soon…”

Seeing their shoulders droop made Yebin feel a sense of pity toward these poor girls.

Although she didn’t know what kind of person Siwoo was, seeing as he had accumulated so much trust, she could tell that he was an exceptional person.

“Are you having difficulties?”

“Is there anything we can help you with?”

“Oh, no… I don’t really need anything…”

Since Amelia had already provided all the necessary resources for her, Yebin was able to focus solely on the treatment.

Nevertheless, the twins grabbed her by the wrists.

“Don’t say that. Come to our carriage for a moment.”

“We’ve prepared something that you might like, Mr. Smyrna.”

“H-Huh?”

Yebin, who was half-forced into the carriage, received a huge pile of gifts, from pretty clothes to magic tools that looked incredibly rare, along with a request to take care of Siwoo from the twins.

As a bonus, she also had to continuously listen to his tear-jerking heroic stories for an hour.

“While Mr. Assistant is a slave and a man, he can use magic.”

“He even fought courageously against the wicked 21st ranked Exile just to save us…”

“R-Really?”

“He had a chance to escape, but he made us evacuate first.”

“He’s our hero.”

The twins surrounded her, making her feel dizzy because they kept speaking in turn.

Their last request was no different from Amelia’s.

“Please take care of Mr. Assistant.”

“The Gemini Corporation won’t forget this favor even in the far future.”

After their conversation was over, Yebin returned to the mansion with an increased burden on her back.

“…”

In fact, she already knew that he had used magic to confront the Exile, but this was the first time she ever heard the story in such detail.

Despite knowing his fate, he risked his life to protect the twins anyway.

As the twins had said, the word ‘hero’ fitted him perfectly considering his unshakeable will and valiant actions.

Suddenly she felt like she was treating one of those amazing people she’d only hear from the newspapers.

“I wonder what kind of person he is…?”

When the treatment concluded, he probably wouldn’t be the same person as before, but Yebin wanted to have the opportunity to get to know him.

Footnotes:

• 1Three layers of membranes that protects the brain and spinal cords.
• 2Paired C-shaped structures which produces the cerebrospinal fluid, which is a fluid that provides the brain with protection and nourishment, also functions as a waste removal.
• 3The front part of the frontal lobe, also known as the ‘personality center.’ It’s the place where we process real-time input for our surroundings, compare that to our past experiences and give out a reaction based on the result of the comparison.
• 4The front part of the prefrontal cortex. It’s involved in someone’s decision-making process.
• 5A natural process during which the brain associates diverent stimuli (substances, situations, events, or activities) with a positive or desirable outcome