They did exactly as I said. No one else was taking initiative, so it was easy for me to get things under control.
They moved the goblin corpse out with no issue.
Maybe they’re used to this…
Now, there was nothing to do until I had all the materials. I called out to Mom and held her hand while we waited. Right now, Marie, Rose, and the braids girl were the only ones left with us. The mother and child who had been in the room with us quickly made their way to the door. The boy stopped in his tracks and returned to me.
“Um…thank you,” he said. He tentatively shook my hand, and then quickly flitted away. His mother seemed to hesitate. Then she nodded her head and went out into hallway and downstairs.
That small action made me feel just a little saved. I closed my eyes, trying to regain my composure. This was far from over.
I walked over to Marie. “Sister,” I said to her, “we’re going to save Mom now. So, try to stay calm. Otherwise, we might lose her.”
“There’s no way we’re losing her!” Marie clenched her teeth. “No! Sh-she’s not going to die!”
“Then stay calm, Marie. Her life is in danger if you lose control. Got it?” I stared into her eyes while tightly holding her hand. That seemed to calm her down a bit.
“F-fine. Got it.” She nodded a few times.
“Good. Now you two, stay over there.”
Rose was still hugging Marie from behind. So long as Rose was there, we’d be fine. I glanced at Rose, who nodded at me. I knew I could trust her to keep things under control.
“Oh, and Marie, do you have a dagger or something?”
“Ah, yeah, over there.”
A knife the size of an adult hand lay on a mounted shelf. We didn’t have anything so useful as scissors. I took it over to the bed and started instructing the braids girl while checking in on Mom.
“Can I ask your name?”
“Yes, my lord! M-my name is Rhia.”
“You don’t have to be so formal. Just call me Shion.”
“Er, ah, uh, okay…Shion.”
She was nervous. Maybe this wouldn’t work after all. She had a huge role here. If she messed up, we’d be doomed. It wouldn’t help for me to put that pressure on her, though.
I cut Mom’s clothes away with the knife. The gash on her back was exposed and it gushed blood.
Rhia gaped. “That, that’s a bad wound.”
I examined it. “It’s not as deep as I thought it might be.” I said. “It’s running from her shoulder to the center of her back. Do goblin claws have poison?”
“N-no, not as far as I know.”
“Good. We don’t have to worry about that.”
We did have to worry about normal infections, though. Hopefully, cleaning the wound would solve that. Regardless, we couldn’t leave Mom like this any longer.
There were no hospitals in this world. Any injury could be life-threatening. Even without poison, wounds could still get infected. I’d heard that even regular colds could kill people before there was modern medicine.
“Young master Shion! Here!” The villagers called out to me as they brought the various supplies. Once they dropped them off, I asked them to repair the barricades on the first floor. This was just in case any more goblins appeared. I told them to return here when they were finished.
“Let’s get started,” I said.
“Er, um,” Rhia stuttered. “Start what?”
“Stitches,” I said. “I need you to stitch up the wound.”
“D-do what?! Why would we do such a thing?!”
Oh, great. Did they not know about stitching? Maybe the technique just hadn’t spread to the countryside? I remember learning that in the early days of western medicine, surgeons received harsh treatment and were even persecuted. I didn’t think stitching would be particularly taboo. Maybe if a scalpel got involved, things would be different.
“We need to stitch up the wound to stop the bleeding. It will stop the blood loss, and help her healing much faster. It will also prevent infection, too. So, please…”
Everyone was looking at me like I was nuts.
“Just, just trust me on this. Okay?”
I realized that stitches night be revolutionary here, but it wasn’t the time or the place to consider that. My focus was to save Mom.
“I d-don’t understand…But won’t we hurt her?”
“We can hurt her and save her or not hurt her and let her die. Your choice.” I didn’t like these words, but I was desperate. Mom was losing precious time to Rhia’s questioning. I needed Rhia. I didn’t know if I could do the stitches myself.
At that moment, Rose came over. “Please, Rhia,” she said, and patted Rhia on the back. That settled things.
“I’ll do it,” Rhia said, giving a big nod.
Do Rose and Rhia know each other?
“If anything happens, I take full responsibility,” I said. “So first…”
I instructed her in the emergency care basics that I knew. First, we thoroughly washed our hands, wiped away the blood with clean rags, and washed the wound out with alcohol. Then Rhia took the needle, heated it in the fire, and began to sew up the wound.
Poor Rhia. This must have been terrifying for her. It was her first time doing this, and she had to perform it on the noble lady of her homeland. I was grateful she hadn’t resisted any more than she did.
Stitches aren’t especially difficult, and Rhia finished up in about fifteen minutes. As she sewed up the wound, the bleeding stopped. Her stitchwork was excellent, too. As the rest of the villagers testified, she was skilled with a needle. She also had nerves of steel.
Lastly, we bandaged the wound with cloth, then turned Mom over face-up.
“Thank you, Rhia. That was amazing.” I said.
“Y-you’re welcome. Will this save your mother?”
“I think so, with some proper rest. She lost a lot of blood, but not enough to kill her.”
Ideally, we’d give her a blood transfusion, but that was obviously impossible. We didn’t have the technology to make syringes, or an expert that could perform the procedure, not to mention we lacked the time and resources. No, I wouldn’t be able to pull something like that off. Luckily, there was no need. After re-checking Mom’s pulse and her face color, I felt slightly relieved.
“Sh-Shion.” It was Marie. “What’s happening to Mom?”
“She’s going to be okay. We’re going to have to look after her for a while, but she’ll get better.”
At that, Marie burst into tears and clung to me. “Shion! Mom! Mom—she—she—”
I patted her back for a while. I understood how she felt because I felt the exact same way. The feelings that I’d bottled up all this time were pouring out of me. I started to cry.
That had been terrifying. So terrifying! I had been so calm, but now that it was over, I felt all my strength leave me.
About half an hour later, Dad and the other men returned. That was when I knew the awful ordeal was finally over.