“Mm… yeah, it really does feel a little easier to breathe here.”
Upon arriving at the greenhouse, Jin removed his mask and drew in a deep, deliberate breath.
See? Jin? My ridiculous idea wasn’t completely wrong, was it? A quiet surge of pride warmed my chest at the thought that this absurd treatment might actually be working.
“Really? If Jin himself says so, then how about letting him stay here even at night, Doctor?”
Richard looked at Jin’s face, visibly brightening, and turned the question to me.
Nope. Absolutely not.
“Plants release beneficial components during the day, but at night they give off the harmful ones. That would be difficult.”
Beneficial: oxygen. Harmful: carbon dioxide. The labels “good” and “bad” were a bit fuzzy in reality, but for Jin they were crystal clear. Of course, the actual amount of carbon dioxide plants release at night wasn’t that significant…
“Complicated.”
Richard let out a low groan.
Yeah, big brother—if you’d been born in our world, you definitely would’ve flunked science track. Same here.
Richard gently lifted Jin and laid him on the newly installed canopy bed, then hung Jin’s outer robe on the nearby stand.
I swear—on my life, with utmost sincerity—I did not prescribe this treatment with any ulterior motive like *this* in mind.
Lush green foliage, vivid splashes of colorful blossoms, the gauzy white curtains of the canopy bed swaying softly, sunlight-bright artificial lighting pouring down, and then—long black hair, pale skin, white shirt—the beautiful dark-haired young man reclining there…
It was a straight-up pictorial spread. The humidifier diligently puffing out mist only added to the ethereal, dreamlike atmosphere.
No, seriously—everyday life had turned into a photoshoot. Why doesn’t this era have cameras? I should capture this right now and pass it down as a family heirloom for generations.
Ughhh. Good job, me. Coming up with such a brilliant treatment method.
“…The smell of greenery. Nice.”
And then this living artwork of a patient, doing nothing more than lying there, turned his gaze to the potted plant beside the bed. His long lashes lowered slowly as he closed his eyes in quiet contentment.
Aaaah. No matter how I think about it, I’m going to die before Jin does. My heart’s going to burst.
I was so absorbed in mentally photographing Jin’s pictorial moment that I didn’t notice—at first—that he had shifted his attention and was now watching me closely.
Wh-what?
I braced myself for something like *“Staring at my face again, huh?”* or *“I know I’m handsome, but you’re gonna wear it out.”*
But Jin only smiled—softly, gently. And at just the right moment, the brilliant light behind him caught his hair and shoulders, creating what looked suspiciously like a halo.
*…Ah, he’s so beautiful.*
The thought slipped out before I could stop it.
★
That night, when I came back to myself, I was sitting at the desk in my bedroom—drawing Jin.
Thank goodness Astrid could draw so well; it came in handy at times like this. The fresh green leaves, Jin’s smile glimpsed through the white curtains…
How could someone smile so purely, so clearly, when even breathing was a struggle? Two months and one week had already passed. Soon… the time of Jin’s death in the original story would arrive.
I had no confidence. None at all that any of my treatments had truly taken root in him.
Suddenly my chest felt tight. Like something heavy was lodged there after dinner, refusing to go down.
I didn’t understand. Why did thinking about Jin hurt so much inside? Was it possible… that I’d started to like him the way the original Astrid had?
No way. I shook my head hard. Me—a lifelong solo—falling for someone?
I was just stanning him because he was ridiculously handsome. That was it. My favorite character had simply switched from Lordant to Jin at some point. That’s all.
I turned my ear toward the next room where Jin was sleeping. Unfortunately, the dwarves’ engineering was *too* good; the soundproofing was flawless. Not a single noise reached me through the wall.
After a moment of hesitation, I stood up abruptly. If I could just hear even the faint sound of his shallow breathing, I’d feel better.
I cracked open the door to Jin’s room and slipped inside. Gede approached with a puzzled look.
Ever since I’d insisted someone always stay by Jin’s side, Richard had arranged for three boys to take rotating twenty-four-hour shifts. Gede was one of them.
*Shh!*
I pressed a finger to my lips. I didn’t want to wake Jin. Gede nodded quickly and returned quietly to the chair beside the bed.
Jin was lying there, fast asleep. Watching the steady rise and fall of his chest brought an unexpected wave of relief. Sleep well, our little Jin.
I caught myself smiling without realizing it. Thank goodness for the mask; at least Gede couldn’t see how high my cheekbones had climbed.
Just… let things stay like this. Nothing happening. Let Jin not die. Let him stay by my side, by Richard’s, by Lordant’s—by all of ours—just like now. Please let that not be too greedy a wish.
★
A week had already passed since Jin began spending his days in the greenhouse. Whether this not-quite-oxygen therapy was actually working or not, his breathing sounds did seem to be easing, little by little.
*…It’s actually working?*
Every time I pressed the stethoscope to his chest and listened to his lung sounds, I could only sit there in stunned disbelief. I’d never truly believed it would.
When I finally set the stethoscope down, Jin buttoned his shirt while studying my face intently.
Wh-what! Staring like that—what are you planning to do!
Today I wasn’t going to let his gaze rattle me. Whether he read my thoughts or not didn’t matter right now. Things were improving—he deserved to know.
“Doctor-nim, your face looks especially bright today.”
Heh. Of course it does. Naturally. Sure, he still had coughing fits sometimes, and occasional hemoptysis, but the fact that his breathing sounds had objectively improved was undeniable.
Moreover, ever since moving to the greenhouse, Jin’s complexion had changed dramatically. The dull, dry skin was gone; what remained was pale but gradually plumping, growing smoother. And on an already handsome face, that only made him *more* devastatingly attractive.
His stomach capacity seemed to have increased too—his meals were noticeably larger. Still nowhere near enough for someone of his height, but progress.
“Our patient has been such a good boy lately, so of course I’m in a good mood. Keeping up with the exercise, right? Taking your medicine properly too.”
Jin could now sit upright for longer stretches. His movements had grown more lively; sometimes he’d even roll around on the bed complaining that he felt restless. Back at the beginning he’d barely had the energy to move at all.
“Of course. Someone ordered me to. Whatever our doctor tells me to do, I’ll do it. Anything at all.”
Jin smiled brightly—wide and sunny.
The better he felt, the more he smiled, and the more hazardous he became to my heart. Damn this guy.
I was happily jotting down the changes on his chart when Richard and several executives—masks on—entered the greenhouse. Looked like executive meeting time.
“Doctor Ober, you’re here.”
Richard greeted me. The others bowed politely in turn.
Jin’s visible improvement, combined with my constant nagging about hand-washing, had drastically reduced minor illnesses throughout the underground city. As a result, the executives now treated me like some grand physician.
N-no—I’m a quack…! Ugh. Honestly, the drop in colds and stomach bugs was thanks more to Rick’s endless variety of cleaning agents than anything I’d done. I wanted to shout it from the rooftops.
I gathered my stethoscope and chart, preparing to leave the greenhouse. Originally executive meetings had been held in Jin’s bedroom, but now that he spent days here, the venue had naturally shifted too.
Rebel command meetings taking place in a bright, verdant greenhouse—it felt wildly out of place. Wrong! It doesn’t match! So mismatched!
And yet… somehow that very incongruity was kind of adorable. All these serious people clustered together on tree-stump chairs like characters from a fairy tale.
Sleeping Beauty’s forest… no, more like a prince and his fairies. I fought back a laugh as I stepped outside. I planned to stop by the exam room briefly, then go find Louis.
Recently Louis and I had embarked on a major project.
Until now we’d been sterilizing medical tools with boiling water, but boiling alone couldn’t achieve true sterilization. So I’d decided to introduce the modern method:
An autoclave—high-pressure steam sterilizer.
Thank goodness I’d worked at a food company and seen sterilization processes before. All I really knew was that it had to be made of sturdy material capable of withstanding high-pressure steam, but that was enough to give Louis quite the headache.
“Doctor!”
While I was gathering autoclave reference materials in the exam room, platinum-blond hair suddenly popped up from under the desk. Lordant.
“Lordant, you’re here?”
Nearly three months had passed, and Lordant had grown so much he was almost unrecognizable.
Having lived on the streets, his nutrition had been poor and his growth stunted. But after coming to the underground city and eating three hearty meals a day cooked by Betty, he’d shot up to roughly the average height for his age.
“Going to see Sister Louis?”
Lordant’s eyes sparkled with curiosity as he watched me organize papers.
“Yeah. Want to come along?”
At my question he nodded vigorously.
…Even if my ultimate favorite had switched to Jin, Lordant was still an unbearably cute creature. I stood, holding the documents in one hand; Lordant immediately grabbed the other.
“Doctor! You’re here—and Lordant too.”
Louis and Rick greeted us warmly as we entered the lab.
Louis immediately spread out her own detailed experimental blueprint for the autoclave and launched into a long, enthusiastic explanation.
But…
Liberal-arts brain here. I understood exactly zero percent of it, Louis-sensei. Sob.
“…Not getting it?”
“Yeah… sorry.”
The person who came up with the idea, yet couldn’t understand a single word of the explanation. How pathetic could I be?
The embarrassment was mutual. I’d begged her to make it—why couldn’t I even follow her explanation? Stupid, stupid me. Louis must have been frustrated too.
“Anyway… um… long story short, even if it takes some time, I think I can build the device you described.”
Louis scratched her cheek awkwardly.
Finally—words I could understand. So it was possible after all!
“Louis, you’re seriously a genius!”
I grabbed her hands and beamed. She gave a shy “hehe” and blushed faintly, smiling back.
From behind us came Rick’s voice.
“Lordant, do you want to become an alchemist when you grow up?”
Apparently Lordant had been pestering him with endless alchemy questions, and Rick had finally grown curious.
“Hm… no.”
Lordant tilted his head, thinking.
“Then… an engineer like big sister?”
Louis perked up hopefully. Everyone was so eager for an apprentice. I watched the scene with warm fondness.
“Mm… nope, not that either.”
Lordant shook his head.
Right, right. Our Lordant is destined to become a great figure who will liberate this empire from evil’s grasp. That’s our boy.
“I want to become a wonderful doctor like Doctor Ober!”
Lordant declared, eyes shining.
Aaaah, Lordant…! Of course, fate didn’t have him becoming a doctor—but that answer alone nearly brought tears to my eyes.
So cute. So lovable! I wanted to scoop him up and roll around on the floor hugging him.
Wait—but if Jin keeps living, Lordant won’t have to take his place, right? Lately Jin’s condition had been improving so steadily that hope had begun to sprout.
But… that hope shattered in an instant.
“Doctor Ober—!”
The lab door burst open. Pin rushed in, face ashen. He was trembling so violently that just watching him frightened me. His bloodless face filled me with dread.
“What’s wrong, Pin? What happened?”
His shaking voice made mine shake too. My mind went blank. Had something happened to Jin?
“The Leader… the L-Leader…”
Reading the worst possible scenario in Pin’s panicked expression, I stood without hesitation.
“Is Jin coughing badly?”
I strode quickly toward the greenhouse, asking over my shoulder. Pin didn’t answer.
“Is he vomiting a lot of blood?”
Still no reply. What was going on? The anxiety was unbearable.
“The Leader… it looks like… he can’t breathe.”
Pin finally managed, voice cracking with tears.
Can’t… breathe? Why? How? Just moments ago he’d been breathing fine—I’d seen it myself. Disbelieving, hands shaking, I pushed open the greenhouse door.
“Jin! Jin!”
Richard’s desperate shout rang out. I stumbled toward the bed on trembling legs. Richard was calling Jin’s name over and over, voice raw with panic.
Jin… really couldn’t breathe. Just as Pin said. Clutching at his chest, struggling desperately for air, thrashing in agony.
In that instant, Jin’s bloodshot eyes met mine.
And then—
Jin lost consciousness.
“No—no! Jin—!”
Richard’s anguished cry tore through the air.
I clenched my fists hard, forcing myself to ignore the feeling that my own breath had stopped.
Calm down. Check the patient’s breathing and pulse…
