In the year 326 of the Osnabrock calendar, during February, Ye Tang received a letter from the Pope. The Pope expressed his willingness to bestow upon Ye Tang the title of “Saintess” and hoped that she could arrive at the Holy See before May to receive the conferment.
Ye Tang replied politely declining the Pope’s offer. She claimed that she was merely an ordinary person who had not accomplished anything particularly great or remarkable on her own. The honor belonged to the entire Hedelin Medical Team, and she personally did not deserve the title of “Saintess”—accepting the Pope’s conferment would mean that the “Hedelin’s angels” acknowledged the Holy See’s legitimacy and authority, placing herself beneath the Holy See and willing to submit to its dominion and rule.
At the same time, accepting the title of “Saintess” would also mean that Ye Tang would be deified. What she and the Hedelin Medical Team had done would shift from “female doctors providing indiscriminate aid to plague-stricken people” to “a saintess sowing miracles in the world.”
In other words, the Hedelin Medical Team’s faith in medicine would be replaced by faith in religion. Once “female doctors” were alienated into “saintesses,” the profession of “female doctor” would no longer be an option for any woman.
Most importantly, if Ye Tang went to the Holy See to receive the conferment, she would have to leave Osnabrock. The Pope wanted her to abandon the Hedelin Medical Team and all the Osnabrock people suffering from the plague. Moreover, the Pope might not be willing to let the symbolically significant Ye Tang return to her homeland.
The worst scenario Ye Tang could imagine was that she would be placed under house arrest in the Holy See. The Pope would organize teams like the “Saintess Corps” in her name to tour various countries, peddling so-called “saintess holy water” and “saintess elixirs” labeled with the saintess title to amass wealth on a grand scale, or force people into ascetic practices to strengthen brainwashing and control over believers.
The eventual outcome would either be that her reputation plummeted, and the Pope dragged her out as a scapegoat to be executed as a “false saintess.” Or the Holy See blindly stumbled into good fortune just as the plague subsided, reaping the praise for quelling the epidemic and receiving more offerings from believers, while she lived as the Holy See’s puppet, occasionally paraded for people to gawk at, without even freedom over her basic bodily functions.
Ye Tang had no interest in titles like “Saintess” and certainly did not want to become the Holy See’s money-making tool. Whether the Pope flew into a rage or felt she was ungrateful upon receiving her reply was not within her considerations at all. She needed to conserve her energy for more important matters, such as—
“You are Gloria, right? What a beautiful name, as beautiful and enchanting as you are…”
An Osnabrock soldier with an injured leg gazed at her affectionately while holding Gloria’s hand, attempting to perform a hand-kissing courtesy. But Gloria, who had come to routinely check on the patient’s condition, tried to shake off the man’s hand, only for him to grip it tighter.
“Oh, it seems this… sergeant has already recovered. So, sergeant, could you please stop occupying the bed? There are many more soldiers outside who need treatment.”
As Ye Tang spoke, she stuffed a crutch into the soldier’s hands and then “escorted” him out of the makeshift field hospital, which had been converted from an empty warehouse.
This was Millerum. Almost all of Millerum’s original hospitals had been leveled by artillery fire, leaving only one usable hospital in the suburbs. But that suburban hospital was less a hospital and more a warehouse piled high with dying patients.
The suburban hospital had no disinfection, sterilization, or isolation measures. All the sick patients were crammed into a single large hall, where countless bacteria and viruses freely exchanged genetic information, mutated, and evolved without any isolation protections.
With limited resources, completely sterilizing and disinfecting such a cauldron of pathogens would waste too much manpower and materials. Ye Tang simply abandoned Millerum’s suburban hospital altogether and had the surrounding area sealed off. Instead, she led her team to requisition a spacious warehouse and converted it into a temporary hospital.
This man was not the first to be driven out of the temporary hospital by Ye Tang. As Claudia, Gloria, Cinderella, and Charlotte grew older, even if they looked disheveled from the effects of the artillery fire, even if they cut their long hair short for easier management and wore plain white garments, they could not hide their youthful allure.
The Hedelin Medical Team consisted entirely of women, and from time to time, men would try to take advantage of them, seeing no other men protecting the ladies and attempting to molest them.
Ye Tang not only had to worry about supplies but also had to ensure the girls’ safety. Last time, a soldier groped Emily’s buttocks, and Ye Tang directly sawed off that soldier’s leg.
In this era, amputating legs or arms was basic surgery. That soldier’s leg had rotted to the point where maggots infested the wound. Without treatment, whether the leg could be saved was minor; he would likely die directly from infection or sepsis. Feeling that he was doomed anyway, the soldier abandoned all sense of propriety and groped Emily.
Ye Tang knew there were better treatments, but under the constraints of medical conditions, amputating the necrotic leg was already an act of mercy toward him. Perfect timing, too, as the men’s gazes toward the Hedelin Medical Team had grown increasingly improper lately. Ye Tang needed something to intimidate these men.
Thus, the soldier screamed his lungs out in the surgical tent, biting on a gag, fainting from pain only to be jolted awake by more agony—Ye Tang had no anesthetic to administer to this soldier with the rotten leg. If he wanted to live, he had to endure such inhuman pain.
This move successfully deterred many soldiers who thought they could force the women into submission through strength or numbers. But occasionally, officers like the one just now appeared, overflowing with self-proclaimed charm and arrogant about their rank. Ye Tang typically terminated their treatment and drove them out. If they ended up disabled or with chronic illnesses, that was on them.
“Mrs. Hedelin is so stern…”
After Ye Tang left, two officers in adjacent beds whispered.
“But doesn’t that make her all the more appealing?”
“…Oh my God! No wonder you said you had no interest in Mrs. Hedelin’s daughters! So you want to be the father to Mrs. Hedelin’s daughters!?”
“Shh, shh—”
The officer whose secret was exposed flushed red and gestured at his friend. Emily and Kim from the Hedelin Medical Team stifled their laughter as they finished writing the medical records and left with a tray of medicine.
“He likes Mrs. Hedelin! We’ve been guessing who he likes for days, and no one guessed right!”
As soon as they exited the tent, Kim burst into laughter. Emily clutched her stomach: “Fiona even guessed he liked his male friend, that he wasn’t into girls! Turns out he’s not into ‘girls’—he’s into ‘women’.”
“Hahahahaha! Fiona’s face will turn green when she hears this!”
Kim and Emily chatted and laughed. Behind them lay nothing but tents and ruins.
Though war had destroyed so much beauty, just as the sun would eventually tear through the clouds to shine upon the earth, no matter how many wounds, they would heal one day. The battlefield was not a place devoid of hope.
“Cease… ceasefire…!!”
A soldier decoding the telegram suddenly stood up from his seat. As he turned around, tears welled up, choking him.
“The Duval and Saint Set armies besieging Millerum have withdrawn…! Duval and Saint Set have announced their withdrawal from the war!!”
The soldiers in the room froze for a moment, then the next second, they removed their hats and tossed them into the air in celebration. “Woooaaah!” cheers spread from inside the building outward, reaching the entire Millerum within ten minutes.
—The news of the Pope’s intent to confer the “Saintess” title upon Mrs. Hedelin spread like wildfire. Even though Ye Tang had refused this honor, the world still linked her and the Hedelin Medical Team with “saintess,” calling Ye Tang “the uncrowned saintess” and the Hedelin Medical Team “Hedelin’s angels.”
Duval and Saint Set had already wavered after Pulheli and other nations announced their withdrawal from the war. After the Hedelin Medical Team arrived at the frontline city of Millerum, morale in Millerum soared. Soldiers expected to leave the frontlines due to injuries survived resiliently, and civilians infected with the Spanish Flu received timely treatment. Millerum’s urban vitality gradually recovered, while the Duval and Saint Set armies weakened continuously due to the spread of the Spanish Flu.
Of course, Duval and Saint Set knew that bombing the Hedelin Medical Team along with all of Millerum would effectively strike Osnabrock. But Duval and Saint Set were merely cooperating with Tartafu, hoping to pick up some benefits while Tartafu and Osnabrock fought to the death. What reason did they have to bear the infamy of killing “the uncrowned saintess” and “Hedelin’s angels” for Tartafu’s sake?
After all, their original justification for sending troops was “suspected Osnabrock spreading the Spanish Flu.” Killing the “uncrowned saintess” and “Hedelin’s angels” who fought the Spanish Flu would be slapping their own faces.
Nations sometimes resembled people. They rushed in when there were benefits to be had, fearing they would get less if they lagged. When they realized it was all harm and no gain, they fled even faster, fearing they would be pinned as the primary nation responsible for all the losses.
In the year 326 of the Osnabrock calendar, during March, in this early spring when daisies blanketed Millerum’s hills, all nations except Tartafu withdrew from the war.
The Hedelin Medical Team, which had saved over twenty cities, was about to head to the final frontline: Tarafa Port.
…
“—Brother Scott, please give up! Even Grimsby, with whom we have generational ties, has withdrawn from this war. At this point, how could Tartafu alone defeat Osnabrock with its forces? Please order a cessation of hostilities! Let this meaningless war with no winner come to an end!”
A youth still carrying a trace of boyish innocence aimed a one-handed smoothbore pistol at the man wearing a crown on the throne.
Behind the youth stood the anti-emperor faction.
“Meaningless?”
The man on the throne, propping his chin, sat up straight. With a mocking expression, he emerged half his face from the darkness: “Ian… no, Isent, my dear brother, you should understand the meaning of this war better than I do.”
“Once we annex Osnabrock, Tartafu will become an incomparably powerful empire! We will break free from the shackles of food shortages and incorporate advanced medical technology into our grasp—”
Rising from the throne, Scott, the new sovereign of Tartafu, descended the steps before it and spread his arms toward Ian: “The only… no, the two things I didn’t expect were that Tartafu would lose this war, and that you are still alive.”
Ian silently gritted his teeth.
His real name was Isent, the fourth son of Tartafu’s previous emperor. He and the former crown prince were full brothers, and the man before him was both his second brother and the one who had sold him beyond the borders.
“…Why did you have me kidnapped and sold out of the country? I posed no threat to your throne, did I?”
“Indeed. As Father King’s fourth son, you truly posed no threat to me. But who told your eldest brother to be the crown prince?”
Shrugging nonchalantly, Tartafu’s emperor laughed like a madman.
“Isent, do you know? The reason Prest contracted the Spanish Flu was all because of you.”
“After you went missing, Prest nearly went mad. He set aside state affairs and mobilized maximum manpower to search for you. As soon as I leaked a hint—saying that someone mentioned human traffickers in the slums had acquired some ‘prime goods’—he really went deep into the slums himself to find you.”
“Don’t you think you owe a ‘sorry’ to the dead Prest?”
“I will say ‘sorry’ to brother Prest. But I’m not sorry for killing him, because the one who killed him wasn’t me—it was you, brother Scott.”
He pulled back the bolt. Ian said, “I feel sorry for brother Prest because I didn’t immediately return to Tartafu. I evaded the responsibility I should have shouldered.”
Hedelin House was a warm place. There were warm people there.
There, he wasn’t Isent. He was just a simple little manservant named Ian.
As long as he brewed the tea well and prepared the tea snacks, the madam and the little misses would praise him. As long as he lit the fireplace properly, he could see the madam bringing the little misses to read in the sitting room.
He no longer had to live days where, no matter what he did or what accomplishments he achieved, he would be ignored. He no longer had to sit alone at one end of a huge long table, eating food that had already gone cold.
He could stroll in the sunlight and rest on the green lawns. The little misses always looked at him with pure, kind eyes that held not a trace of calculation. The madam fully trusted him and was willing to give a home—a place to return to—to an outsider of unknown origins who hid his background.
So when he learned of his blood brother’s death, his first thought wasn’t to return to Tartafu to avenge him. Instead, brother Scott was too terrifying. He never wanted to go back to Tartafu, to become the fourth prince Isent again.
But it was precisely because he was so selfish that Scott’s unchecked ambition had swelled to this extent.
The little misses, who should have grown like delicate greenhouse flowers, had been forced to touch pus and blood. The madam, who should have lived a luxurious life as a noblewoman, had been forced to set foot on the frontline battlefield. Even knowing this was the madam and the little misses’ own choice, he still felt apologetic. He felt sorry that he once had the chance to prevent the war but hadn’t cherished that opportunity.
Bang!
Ian pulled the trigger. Scott stared at the red flower that bloomed on his chest and smiled as he collapsed to the ground.
“……I really should have……killed you……”
“If I’d known……the one killing me wasn’t some stranger, but you……I wouldn’t have bothered to humiliate you……I would have just……killed you……”
Ian fired two more shots into Scott’s back. As he watched Scott’s blood spread across the ground, Ian said calmly, “Unfortunately, you no longer have that chance.”