Chapter 21
Her face felt flushed.
Was it because of the sunset? Or was it the evening breeze carrying the heat of late summer and the scent of early autumn?
“Sounds like something a teenager would say.”
At this rate, it was like advertising, “I’m a woman with a story.”
Alice hurried her steps, almost tripping as her wet clothes clung to her thighs.
She barely managed to regain her balance and return to her usual stride when—
“You can scream if you want.”
Fiore made a silly remark and grabbed a handful of Alice’s skirt, instantly cooling her knees.
“What are you doing?”
“Being rude yet kind.”
“Are you testing how far you can go before I slap you?”
“I’d appreciate it if you considered how I feel, having to watch you wallow in misery right in front of me. It’s almost self-harm at this point.”
Well, she could just not look.
The stench had faded, so she could simply turn back the way she came.
That obvious thought rose to her tongue but retreated again.
In silence, Fiore twisted Alice’s skirt with his left hand and squeezed it. The water that Alice couldn’t shake off fell with a splat.
It was definitely easier to walk now. Besides, it was dark enough that no one would see her underwear.
The moon rose slowly.
In the darkness where they couldn’t see each other’s expressions, Fiore spoke up.
“What did you do to Cherry?”
“I… I really messed up. I won’t turn on the light again—”
“Not that. After you turned on the light, what did you do?”
“Huh? Well, I treated her. I applied ointment to her external wounds and put a splint on her nose to stabilize it.”
“Why?”
“Uh… to restore the function and appearance of the injured body parts as close to their original state as possible…?”
Why was he suddenly acting so strange? Alice swallowed a sigh internally.
Well, it was more comfortable for him to act oddly than to be overly kind; it reminded her that Fiore was also a resident of this bizarre village.
Fiore muttered, now barely distinguishable as a question or soliloquy.
“Wasn’t the ‘original state’ strange too? From your perspective.”
“Everything is strange. The guy who stole my wallet on our first meeting and then returned it, the odd rules imposed by this village, Cherry who has powder flying from her body, Adelaide with inhuman strength—all of it.”
“……”
“But what isn’t strange? If there’s someone who is perfectly ‘normal,’ I’d argue that such a person should be displayed in a medical museum. They shouldn’t act like they are the standard of the world or the embodiment of creation.”
A sardonic smile escaped her lips involuntarily.
During her first year at medical school, there were always guys who would stand up and show off their bodies as if they were perfect samples while learning about muscles and bones.
Of course, those guys would never be displayed in a museum.
Hearing her chuckle, Fiore clicked his tongue.
“You seem a bit strange too.”
“I told you, everything is strange… And I have something I want to ask.”
“Go ahead.”
“In this place… “
A question she had from day one resurfaced.
Is having a ‘female doctor’ considered normal?
Madam Adelaide and others showed no surprise at her being a doctor. An old man they met during their travels even got angry at the mention of it, asking if they were joking.
But she didn’t voice her question out loud.
If she heard an answer like ‘Why would that be strange?’ she felt like she would feel even weirder.
It had been natural for her to live like she was swimming through bushes; if she were to hear from these odd residents of an odd village that ‘why is that natural?’ it would somehow…
“D-Dr. Esha said…”
Finding an alternative question wasn’t difficult at all.
“Doctors are 100% sinners,”
“Ah.”
He didn’t seem surprised at all, as if he had just heard that ‘water is wet.’
Feeling like she could get an answer now, Alice spoke faster. There was a hint of justification in her words too.
“I know my mentor had a bad reputation for being careless in his practice and isolating himself afterward. But I feel like that’s not the only reason—could you tell me why?”
She wanted to ask about the criteria for being considered a sinner too, but she figured that just asking about perceptions toward doctors wouldn’t yield good responses.
‘First ask about their perception of doctors; if I get an answer, I can use that to deduce and slowly dig deeper.’
All of Alice’s senses reached out towards Fiore like antennae.
She felt this might be her only chance to ask.
Given how he was acting strangely kind now, surely there would be some clues—
“I don’t want to answer.”
A scoff followed—a childish one at that—making both irritation and embarrassment rise within her simultaneously.
‘Damn it! Why did I think Fiore would do something beneficial for me? Did I really believe anything could change in just a few minutes?’
Alice’s voice suddenly turned sharp.
“Isn’t it a waste of time telling someone who’s going to die anyway?”
“Wow, teacher! You really have too many thoughts.”
“What?”
“I’m not stupid enough to throw emotional baggage at someone who’s already a mess. That’s all.”
Fiore reached out his hand. Even in the dark, he easily brushed his fingers over Alice’s left cheek near the wound caused by Arno.
That unexpectedly gentle touch sent chills down her spine as soon as she recognized it.
“Don’t touch me!”
“It’s okay for you to bathe in front of men but not for them to touch your wounds? Your ethics seem quite complicated.”
“Stop saying disgusting things! No, don’t touch me!”
Alice slapped away his fingers that had been lightly grazing her shoulder. Fiore chuckled and withdrew his hand.
Ah, perhaps it was thanks to shouting that I felt a bit at ease.
“Fiore, I appreciate your concern, but even on a bad day, I don’t want to stop thinking about things. It’s like an instinct.”
“……”
“If I’m destined to die here without ever leaving the village, then what does it matter what I learn? Just be honest with me. Why are doctors seen as sinners by the residents?”
Fiore stopped very slowly. The water in the bucket splashed gently.
On this autumn night filled with the sounds of wind and insects, Fiore spoke in a voice that seemed out of place.
“Since you started learning medicine, have you ever felt pleasure?”
“Pleasure?”
“The feeling that you can control life, borrowing the omnipotence of a god.”
“……”
It was a clearly leading question. Alice suppressed her irritation and reflected on her own experiences.
Most of what she had done to make a living as a doctor involved autopsies.
Did this patient, referred from the charity hospital, die from an epidemic? Did the homeless man found under the bridge die from a fall or was he pushed while fighting over a piece of bread?
No matter what conclusion Alice reached, their lives would not come back.
But even dealing with the dead…
“I can’t say it wasn’t pleasurable.”
It wasn’t bad to glimpse the circumstances that only God could observe.
“But if this is a sin, then it’s a bit unfair. It was work I did to make a living and to help society.”
“That part is fine. The problem arises when the situation is reversed.”
“Reversed?”
“When it’s not for treatment, not for proof, not for learning… but solely for pleasure, whether you’ve ever used your identity as a doctor to take someone’s life.”
“……”
Several examples from newspapers flashed through her mind.
Someone who used surgical skills for serial murder, someone who targeted disabled patients for abuse, someone who exploited patients’ families as if they were slaves under the pretense of treatment…
But labeling all doctors as sinners because of those few scumbags was illogical—
‘…No.’
The brief anger faded quickly.
Was it really important to defend with “not all doctors are like that”?
There must be more important questions.
“Fiore, did something happen to you and Dr. Esha at the hands of a doctor? Are you okay now?”
“Oh.”
Fiore whistled briefly.
“This time I’m being asked questions?”
“I thought I should ask.”
Fiore seemed ready to move forward again without responding, likely wanting to drop off the bucket of water and this bothersome woman before leaving.
The clinic was just ahead.
But Alice didn’t give up even though she sensed this.
“You don’t need to explain the incident. Just let me know if there’s anything a doctor can do to ease any aftereffects.”
“……”
“It’s not to atone for any sins.”
A face came to Alice’s mind—Auber Boucher, my brother.
Yes, there was an incident closer than any newspaper story.
Was his decision to join the Cannery University Medical Museum purely for the medical advancement?
The gaze of those gathered around Auberts bed, the tone of the voice that said, ‘This case should definitely be acquired by Canery City University’…
“I want to help. Really—”
“Enough.”
His serious voice abruptly cut off the conversation. Alice felt as if a knife had passed in front of her eyes and swallowed hard.
Was he angry? I meant it sincerely, but perhaps it sounded too transparent from his perspective?
Even when she looked up, Fiore’s face was hidden in the moonlight, showing no expression at all; only his brown sugar-colored eyes glimmered strangely.
“I should have just thrown your wallet into the capital so you’d never have to come here.”
“What?”
“I really… made the wrong choice.”
Fiore set down the bucket and suddenly turned around. Alice tried to grab him, but with her damp skirt still clinging to her, she couldn’t even catch his clothes.
Only Fiore’s voice reached Alice.
“Those who hunt without need must be ready to end up with nothing. That’s the law of this land.”
With those words, his enormous shadow—reminiscent of a rhinoceros—quickly faded beyond the fields.
Alice stared blankly at his retreating figure.
Her mind was tangled up with confusion: hunting, doctors, pleasure, sinners, deficiency—all those words built an unbalanced tower of hypotheses that collapsed.
But more than that tower, what troubled Alice was a question rippling in the back of her mind.
‘Was I really never meant to come here in the first place?’
On her first day, she thought Fiore stole her wallet to prevent an outsider from witnessing and spreading the village’s secrets.
However, just seeing how freely the errand runners moved in and out proved that hypothesis wrong; if someone left Reki before dying, there would be no need for such trouble in controlling access.
‘Could it be that Fiore stole my wallet to prevent victims from arising?’
