At Glenn’s instruction, Cottingley brought in an iron bucket.
Pretty much everything he needed to treat Elle was available in the castle. Everything he had in his room, too, had been found in the castle and brought to him by Cottingley. He wasn’t sure how much good medical treatment could do in a world of souls—but then why were alcohol, tweezers, and bandages of the sort that were necessary for such treatment kept in the castle?
He didn’t have to think too hard about it. It seemed they’d been trying different ways to treat Elle’s wounds, too.
“Excuse me, then.” Glenn got to work.
“Mmmhmm.”
He kneeled in front of Elle to look at her right leg. The skin was rotted through and looked painful, riddled with maggots. Wounds soon festered and became maggot-infested under unsanitary conditions, and though he didn’t think this castle was necessarily unsanitary, her wound had clearly reached that point. He wondered if this was really the embodiment of the concept of death.
“This might feel cold…” he warned her.
“It’s fine. My senses are numbed on my right side, though it can sometimes be very painful. A little bit of coolness is nothing,” she replied.
Glenn closed his eyes as he imagined Elle’s pain. The movements of the maggots alone would cause a normal human excruciating agony.
He started by removing the maggots with tweezers, using quick motions to toss the white bugs into the bucket.
“Mmm, mmm…ahn.”
Each time the metal came in contact with Elle’s festering skin, she moaned just a little.
“Ahh… Mmm…mmm, wow you’re good at this,” she gushed.
“Do…you think so?”
“The little maggots are cute, but it doesn’t actually feel that nice when they’re eating me.”
Glenn didn’t understand how she could think the white, engorged larvae were cute. That said, the fact that she was reacting to stimuli meant her nerves were intact. Terrible as it looked, he thought it possible she might recover.
“I have removed the maggots. Next, I will disinfect the wound.”
“Mmmhmm.”
“I think it will sting.”
“Mmm, mmm…that’s fine.”
Glenn sprinkled alcohol on the wound to disinfect it. As he was applying it directly to the raw flesh, it had to be excruciatingly painful.
“Mmm…” Elle was in agony from the disinfectant soaking her leg.
This must be torture…
Glenn groaned inside. The Goddess was half alive and half dead—a thing unfathomable in the living realm, but not in the Underworld. The disinfected wound was red and raw, and it hurt her when he touched her with the tweezers. She’d said she felt pain sometimes, but now, he wondered how much she’d been suffering till now.
He remembered what Cottingley had said when he first arrived in the Underworld. He’d said this was a place that “will never change.” In the living world, this wound would heal. Illness could be alleviated. Because things could change.
If nothing can change here…then Elle will be stuck like this forever…maybe.
They were dead, and nothing would change.
Glenn desperately pushed the thought out of his mind. He had removed the maggots and disinfected the wound. There was no reason he couldn’t treat her.
“I will remove the damaged skin with a knife. If we leave it, the maggots will multiply again and continue consuming the flesh.”
“O-okay.”
Glenn started cutting away the rotted skin with a small surgical knife, throwing this into the bucket too. The maggots were unpleasant to look at, but he remembered Cthulhy once saying that they were effective as a treatment of last resort, since they ate dead flesh and pus. However, he was able to provide appropriate treatment now, so they were unnecessary.
Where could she have gotten this wound?
The horribly damaged skin looked both like a burn and a laceration. Either way, he had to do something about the necrosis. Glenn proceeded to cut away at the portions that were most riddled with maggots.
“Mmm…mmm…ahh….” Elle let out a strange sound.
Having pieces of skin cut off couldn’t have been a nice sensation—but Elle’s face and voice suggested she was getting a massage.
“Ahhh…mmm…that’s good, it’s good.”
“Queen Elle?”
“My skin’s been troubling me for so long. You’re trimming away the excess so very well—it’s a great relief.”
“Is…that so?” Glenn figured she must feel sensations differently than humans.
“Ahh, hmnn… Mmm-ahh… Ooh, ahh…”
Each time Glenn cut off another piece of skin, Elle moaned as if it felt really good.
Finally, he had removed nearly all the dead flesh. The skin with keloid scars looked much cleaner too.
“Are you done…already?”
“No, I still need to apply ointment and bandage the wounds—the boot has been encouraging the rot, which I don’t think is very good for the skin.”
“Hmph. I don’t like being wrapped up like an invalid…but I’ll do whatever you say,” Elle said obediently once Glenn had explained her treatment.
It was strange. She wasn’t refusing treatment. There were plenty of medical supplies in the castle, and signs that she’d attempted treatment in the past—so why did it take so long for Molly to convince her? Did she just not want to be seen like that?”
“Mmm… Ahhn…owww,” Elle said as Glenn applied the white ointment.
“Oh, did that hurt?”
“N-no it’s nothing—keep going,” she instructed, and Glenn continued applying the ointment, making sure to get every single wound.
“Mmm…Ahh, mmm… Oh… Mmm-ahh.”
“Queen Elle? Are you all right?”
“Mmm-ah…Don’t worry. It’s been thousands of years since anyone has touched me…Eee, I’m just ticklish… Mmm-ahh…ahhh,” Elle moaned.
Glenn kept applying the ointment as carefully as possible to avoid causing pain. Once he was done, Elle’s leg looked much better. The dead skin was more or less gone, and thanks to the ointment, the surface was smooth. Now that it was all clean, there shouldn’t be any new maggots. All that remained was to maintain this state.
Glenn started to wrap her leg. Please heal, he prayed to himself. He hoped that this would alleviate her pain, even if it was a small amount.
“Hmmm, just as I thought. It’s not a pretty sight,” Elle said, looking at her bandaged leg.
“I’m sorry. I hope you can put up with…”
“It’s fine. I’m good at putting up with things. I’ve put up with ruling this boring-ass world, after all,” she pointed out.
Glenn couldn’t figure out if she was just being a masochist. Still, he continued tending to her, treating her right arm and the right side of her face. With each area, he removed the flesh-eating maggots, cut off the dead skin and applied ointment. Elle would sometimes cry out as he applied the medication—and when she did so, she would sometimes eye him and laugh, as if she was enjoying it.
“Teehee,” she giggled.
“Uhmm, can I help you?”
“Oh, no, it’s nothing. I was just thinking about how passionate you look when you’re treating someone. Don’t worry about it—it’s not like you want to be stared at by a girl with a half-rotting face anyway, right?” she prompted.
“Uh, no—I think you are beautiful,” Glenn answered honestly.
Elle’s face really was beautiful. It even made him anxious to apply medication to it, as if he were touching a piece of artwork. But Elle probably hated her half-necrotic face, which was why she was always hiding it behind her hair.
“You don’t have to be polite—but I will commend your bedside manner,” Elle said, a longing expression on her face. Glenn wasn’t sure what exactly she was trying to tell him.
After that, he bandaged her arm and then her face. Elle didn’t complain at all but genuinely accepted his ministrations.
“You should get better now… I think,” Glenn announced.
“Mmm, mm…is that so?” Elle nodded. “So I’ll get better, then.”
“Yes. And, well, this is awkward to say, but as payment for my treatment—”
“You want to go back to life, right? Molly told me,” Elle cut in.
Molly had been standing by, watching him work. Now, she nodded.
“Normally it is unheard of for a dead person to come back to life,” Elle started.
Glenn was silent.
“But no one has ever healed me before. Fine, then. If your treatment is successful, I will send you back to the realm of the living.”
“Really?” Glenn was surprised. He thought it would take more time to negotiate.
“If you really did heal me—right?”
Glenn fell silent again.
“Don’t be so depressed. I never break a promise. The day I am healed, you can go back to your precious world of the living,” Elle chuckled. She seemed giddy. “Once you think tomorrow has come, come back to see me. You can check on the progress, my primary physician.”
“I understand—” Glenn started.
“Relax. A full day here is a very short time in the living world. Your body will probably still be there by the time you get back. Heh,” she laughed.
Glenn nodded. Mentally, he repeated his prayer that the treatment would work and she would heal, over and over again.
He was aware of one painful truth, however. As soon as he started praying that his treatment would work, Glenn knew that he had dropped a rank as a doctor.