Dry Drowning - Chapter 35

The peaceful campsite turned into chaos in an instant.

When those who had been laughing and joking until the morning returned covered in blood, the crew, who were doing different things, rushed.

“Hey, what about Evan? You were in the same group!”

“Is that important now? Damn it, don’t you see that his arm flew away?”

“Where did this happen? Did you mark it?”

“This at least…”

“You didn’t just leave him behind! Right?”

“Shut up, everybody. Stop the bleeding right now, you b*stards!”

It was Fred with a crumpled expression on his face who arranged the situation in which everyone was frantically pouring out their own words. He wondered how far he had to go, he didn’t know the extent. Apparently, the remaining people were all new recruits who had just joined.

In the last expedition, they were only in vain, so this was the first time they had been in such a situation. When he gritted his teeth, wondering what he was doing with these guys, some of them, who finally came to their senses, brought clean cloth.

Up close, the condition was even more disastrous.

There were some people who lost their entire arm, as well as their abdomen, which was dented enough to reveal a split cross section. Fortunately, some of them who were conscious seemed to have returned with those who could not move.

Half-broken armor was removed, and when the cloth was pressed against the bleeding area, a painful scream immediately erupted.

“Hold on. Do you want to die here?”

“No, no… Ah, urgh!”

“Let’s move everything inside first, there might be an infection like last time, so be careful. I need to sterilize it, so bring some water to boil. Don’t lose your mind, you punks!”

When specific instructions were given, the people, who were wandering, took charge of their respective tasks. As he hurriedly boiled the water and watched the injured being moved inside by putting them on the blankets, his eyes met Ian, who was standing at a distance not far away.

He didn’t want to see him, but now he was in a hurry. Most of them were in serious condition. It was also unknown when other search parties would arrive, so they had to hold on until then.

“Hey, what are you looking at? You help too!”

Ian thought he would get kicked out right away, but what he said was unexpected.

Fred frowned as if he had predicted what Ian was thinking, but soon turned to the urgent call for him.

“What?”

“I can’t stop the bleeding. The torn part is large and the wound is deep, so I think I need to clean it right away…”

There was blood dripping underneath the man who was already lying down. The wound was so large that pressure alone could not stop the bleeding, so he would have died from excessive bleeding if left as it is. However, there was no one who could sew the wound right away.

Schwartz or Claude, who went on such expeditions several times, could do it even when closing their eyes, but Fred only helped a few times and had never done it himself.

Oh no, I think I’m going to die like this.

He was barely holding onto it, but it was obvious that he would not be able to hold out for long.

He was biting his lips, unable to do this or that, and someone approached Fred. Even in this situation, Ian looked relaxed.

“Go and help!”

He got annoyed and screamed. Some people were going back and forth between life and death, and it was obvious that he was pissed off that he was just watching. No matter how much we don’t know each other, people are dying in front of us…! But Ian, ignoring the gallant Fred, took out his notebook and only wrote something down.

“Hey! Ack…!”

When he raised his voice one more time, the notebook was pushed in front of his nose. It was the moment when Fred, whose face was pressed against it, couldn’t resist being crushed and grabbed Ian by the collar. He blinked his eyes at the shaky letters right in front of him.

Needle, thread, cloth

“…What? Can you do it?”

Ian nodded when Fred, who turned suspicious at once, asked again. Fred, who was furious at the completely unreliable attitude, opened his mouth.

“Why are you trying to help all of a sudden?”

Right now, the patient was out of breath. Ian, who had little to do with it, tried to beckon something and wrote something in his notebook again as if he was annoyed.

You. Help. Request. Help.

You asked me to help, so I said I’d help.

It was a crazy combination of words and basic forms. Anyway, he nodded awkwardly because the meaning was conveyed, but somehow he felt very bad. Why? He wanted to think about the reason, but the man who was out of breath came first.

The tools were quickly prepared at Fred’s command.

Ian swallowed a bitter smile as he looked at the straight needle rather than being a bent one. He didn’t even expect it anyway. It is disinfectant, so there can’t be medical gauze. The only consolation was the neatness of the barracks.

[T/N: Disinfectant- Causing disinfection.

Barracks – Soldiers’ tent.]

[T/N: Cotton fibers in gauze can absorb and actually inactive ingredients in disinfectants leaving them less effective or ineffective altogether. Just for more information why there can’t be medical gauze. I don’t know anything about medical stuff guys, just researched on Google. (θ‿θ)]

He thought to explain the secondary infection, but he just passed it.

[T/N: Secondary infection – A secondary infection is an infection that occurs during or after treatment for another infection. It may be caused by the first treatment or by changes in the immune system.]

It was because he thought it would be similar whether he dies with that or dies now.

The faintly conscious man fumbled as he saw Ian holding a needle. Ian, who had expected what he was going to say with his frightened eyes, stuffed the cloth next to him into the man’s mouth. If you bite your tongue in the middle, it’s all meaningless.

“Wai-Wait, whop!”

Fred, who watched the thoughtless action blankly, quickly grabbed the man at Ian’s ungrasped gaze. Since there was no anaesthetic, it almost pierced the flesh several times.

There will of course also be shocks. Ian moved the needle unannounced, recalling the increasing reasons for death.

“Ugh! Ugh!”

The faces of the people outside turned pale due to the screams heard in the barracks. They wondered if he was torturing him with spite of nothing, but after a while, the sutures, which were cut after a while, were excessively clean and perfect.

[T/N: Suture – Surgical suture, also known as a stitch or stitches, is a medical device used to hold body tissues together and approximate wound edges after an injury or surgery.]

It was natural. I’ve been doing this for years. Most of the wounds on my body were sewn by myself.

Of course, it’s rare to do it without painkillers or anaesthetics.

“……..”

By the end of the evening, Logan returned to the campsite and stared intently at the scene in front of him. As follows, other search teams arrived one after another, and all were forced to witness the same scene.

“Why? What is it?”

Kyle, who arrived last, pushed some people in front of him in an unusual atmosphere and went inside. Then he soon faced Ian, who had a rare look on his face.

“Ha….”

Humans want two when they get one.

[T/N: It kinda means, the more you get the more you want.]

Ian was paying the price for forgetting the unchanging truth for a moment.

Fred, who witnessed Ian’s skills in person, made Ian sew three more people after that. He was wondering what to do, as there was really no one who could sew. It was Fred again this time that stopped Ian from leaving the barracks after the last cut.

“You said you’d help!”

So what.

It was the man whose arm was cut off who appeared in front of Ian, who had already taken care of three of them. The man leaned his head because he thought he was going to do something more. To be exact, it would be more right to say that it was ripped off. As Ian, who had no ability to suture his missing arm, narrowed the gap between his eyebrows, he was forced to look at it for now.

He had been feeling this for a while, that it wasn’t a wound from being attacked by a human. The rough and messy wound was obviously the act of an animal. Is it a bear too? It was difficult to determine exactly because the ecology of this place was not well known.

Since Ian had never treated a person with a torn arm, all he could do was stop bleeding.

He thought this was the end, but when he tried to get up, Ian, who had to face most of the search groups who eventually returned, was beyond the limits of his patience by the time Logan arrived. At this point, it was almost an illegal medical facility.

Puck!

When he threw the wet cloth he was holding onto Fred’s face, he fell. Fred, who was lying on the floor defenseless, couldn’t figure out what had happened for a moment and jumped up at once.

“Hey! Why are you doing this all of a sudden, whop?”

The cloth on the other hand was also stuffed in his mouth. Fred, who couldn’t overcome the power of the wet cloth, got up again with a reddened face. Are you crazy? He shouted but it was a question that could not be heard from Ian, who seemed a bit crazy.

It was the knights nearby who stopped Fred, who was about to rush in.

“Hold on, hold on!”

“You have to tell me the reason for throwing it! Aren’t you coming?”

….This was the scene that the returning crew witnessed. The people, who could not grasp the situation for a moment as they watched Fred and Ian fighting-almost one-sidedly-soon ran in and found out the truth when someone explained the situation.

At that, Kyle, who ran into the barracks, came out after a while and shouted at Ian. His face was deeply enlightened.

“Prince, did you just embroider in the palace?”

[T/N: Embroider- Decorate (cloth) by sewing patterns on it with thread.

It was once again the moment the wet cloth flew in.

ㅡㅡㅡㅡㅡㅡㅡㅡㅡㅡㅡㅡㅡㅡㅡㅡㅡㅡㅡ